[odf-discuss] Microsoft and Novell cooperate on document formats

[M. Fioretti]

On Thu, Nov 02, 2006 21:05:10 PM -0800, marbux (marbux at gmail.com)
wrote:
> On 11/2/06, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at mclink.it> wrote:
> 
>     If the OO.o shipped with SUSE (and that only) got plugins that render
>     MSO files (complex ones, with macros etc..) correctly, it would be for
>     many users a powerful reason not to bother with ODF.
> 
> My guess is that it would take until the 12th of Never for such
> plug-ins to be developed. I doubt Microsoft would even consider
> allowing it to become licensed under the GPL for use on Linux.

Sorry, but why should such plugins, Visual basic etc... be GPL just
because they are for Linux? There is no need at all for that, there's
plenty of absolutely proprietary sw sold and licensed for GPL
systems. You *can*, technically and above all legally, sell/ license a
binary that only runs on Suse. And Novell _can_ enter such agreement
and support it.

> The real plums for Microsoft here that I've come up with so far are:
> ... [ii] being able to show ISO that multiple apps are developing
> support for MOOX, a prerequisite to ISO standardization.

Yes, I hadn't realized this explicitly, thanks: so there _is_ danger
for ODF in this. Anything that may make ISO standardization easier, or
even just _look_ like that, could sensibly delay the adoption of ODF.

> But one of the flies in the ointment is the amount of work on OOo it
> would take to allow it to fully support MOOX.
...
> Another major fly is the fact that the deal expires in five years.

See above. It wouldn't be the first time that something goes to limbo
because "Microsoft said they'll do the same in the next version".

> Remember too that Microsoft still has to get this deal approved by
> antitrust authorities on several continents.

Yes, this is certainly a good thing.

Ciao,
	 Marco

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