[odf-discuss] Gnome, Ecma, and what governments (and FOSS?) should have done

[Alberto Barrionuevo]

On Thursday 01 November 2007 10:44:18 M. Fioretti wrote:
> *BUT* it is the way it is happening, that is inside the
> standardization process, that is de-facto helping them to get ISO
> labels, that seems wrong and really counterproductive to me. _This_ is
> where I have the feeling that Gnome was fooled and that is actually
> and actively helping to perpetuate a real mess. What Gnome was doing
> WILL (once it's ISO it's much harder to keep it out of Public
> Administrations!) increase the number of NEW OOXML files in Public
> Administrations in the next years: this is what I find hard to forgive,
> justify or not see as a bad thing.

Yes, but this is what they seem not to want to understand. Surelly the 
presence of several corporative OOXML backers in the Gnome Foundation could 
explain that impossibility to see that they are actually helping to their 
primary competitor, Microsoft, to get its precious ISO blessing that as much 
can damage the entry of the free desktop and free office applications in the 
public administrations and whole society at the end.

For example, KDE on the contrary is absolutelly against OOXML and, take care, 
they have a real full office suite, KOffice, not as Gnome that has only two 
smaller-in-features independent applications only with much less development 
resources (yes, because they moved to OOo, but that is history, and we have 
to deal with future mainly...)

The pity is that some people in the free desktops field see as competitors to 
the other free desktops instead of seeing to the real competitors: Microsoft 
and, perhaps, also Apple, that are actually who are blocking the entry of the 
free desktops in the market.

Saludos,
-- 
Alberto Barrionuevo
Vice President FFII
www.ffii.org