John:
Far be it for me to blow someone else's trumpet, but I guess MSFT guys
are unlikely to be very frequent observers or participants on this
forum. (01)
Where is your evidence for the claim that "MSFT was invited to join
OASIS, but they refused"? If you look at
http://www.oasis-open.org/about/index.php you will see that MSFT is a
sponsor-level member of OASIS and has been for many years. . It is also
active in many OASIS technical committees and adheres to OASIS' quite
extensive intellectual property policies, including the commitment to
open standards. (02)
Some other errors:
- OpenOffice supports the OASIS *specification* but not the ISO
*standard*;
- OpenOffice does not support "all the functionality normal people ever
use" - what an arrogant assumption! I use footnotes and bulleted lists
extensively, does that make me abnormal? "Ordinary users" use maybe only
2-3% of any office productivity system, but never the *same* 2-3%:
- MSFT Office imports from and exports to ODF, and exports (very fast)
to PDF; (03)
This sort of FUD really does no credit to anyone promoting open source
solutions. (04)
Further, I think you make the casual and common mistake of fusing the
discrete issues of "standards" and "interoperability": they are not the
same thing. Standards *enable* interoperability by providing stable,
predictable, governed and sustained interfaces, upon which
interoperability can be subsequently built. That's why, IMO, Linux has a
problem in take up in the public sector - because there are too many
flavours and not enough governance - a nightmare for interoperability. (05)
Arguing that interoperability can be achieved by a single,
one-size-fits-all, standard is nonsense. I don't insist that the USA and
other regions of the world rip out all their electricity infrastructure
and replace it with the good European 230V standard, just so that I can
achieve interoperability, I go and buy a cheapo adapter - job done. The
market is in adapters (like the converters you mention) not in
eliminating competition between standards which - in the case of ODF and
OOXML - offer different functionalities and benefits for different
audiences and needs. (06)
Regards, (07)
Peter (08)
-------------
Peter F Brown
Founder, Pensive.eu
www.pensive.eu
Chair, CEN eGovernment Focus Group
www.cen.eu/isss/egov
Director, OASIS
www.oasis-open.org/who.bod.php
Co-Editor, OASIS SOA Reference Model
Lecturer at XML Summer School
www.xmlsummerschool.com (09)
Contact:
Tel: +32 2 346 4866
GSM: +32 472 027811
Skype:
---
Personal:
http://public.xdi.org/=Peter.Brown
www.XMLbyStealth.net (010)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F.
Sowa
Sent: 19 October 2007 21:48
To: [ontolog-forum]
Subject: [ontolog-forum] Free viewer for PowerPoint 2007 (011)
> The slides work fine, but only if you use PowerPoint 2007.
>
> I suspect they were created in Office 2007. (012)
In order to propagate their monopoly, Microsoft kindly provides
free viewers for all their Office products. Following is the
2007 version of the PowerPoint viewer: (013)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=048DC840-14E1-4
67D-8DCA-19D2A8FD7485&displaylang=en&hurl=536FDB142340FF5644AD7A4A6C275C
12&QueryID=reICSjOC30&respos=1&rt=3&pid=CD102070641033
Download details: PowerPoint Viewer 2007 (014)
I worked for a major monopolist (IBM) during the years when they
were at their monopolistic worst. I tried to open things up from
the inside, but failed. But in the end, IBM caused multibillions
of dollars of damage to the entire industry by their tactics --
and they damaged themselves more than anybody else. IBM finally
got religion after a near-death experience before Lou Gerstner
saved them. (015)
I urge everyone -- even Microsofties -- to support open standards.
MSFT was invited to join OASIS, but they refused. Until they do,
I believe it is not only bad policy, but *morally* wrong to support
their monopoly. (016)
I strongly recommend that people use OpenOffice for generating *all*
office requirements: (017)
1. OpenOffice (and Sun Office) support the OASIS standards --
but MSFT does not. (018)
2. OOO provides all the functionality normal people ever use. (019)
3. OOO can export to all major formats: (020)
- MSFT formats: .doc, .xls, .ppt. (021)
- PDF formats (the PDF output for slides can be viewed full
screen on any computer and they are much more compact
than .ppt slides). (022)
- LaTeX formats -- which are very useful for submissions
to many journals. (023)
4. I have never had any problems importing and collaborating
with people who pay $$$$ through their noses for MS Office. (024)
5. And the freebie viewers ensure that even the most arcane
MSFT files can be viewed (much more rapidly than with
the bloated MS office). (025)
John Sowa (026)
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