Novell makes ODF-OOXML translator available

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Wow, and it's just as bad as the MCAN translator!

Holy crapula, Brian Jones just committed a Fox News ploy: declare victory in the midst of stunning defeat and rejection, and go home. Nice little rhetorical trick if you can get away with it. But not so fast, Brian. Has anyone else noticed the moratorium on OXML blog posts by Microsoft employees recently? Now you get a flood of silly posts about "choice," "compatibility," and "no format wars." A few of the ZDNet crowd is pushing OXML like crack dealers in their blogs, as if their jobs depended on Microsoft. (Oh wait, they do, don't they?) Problem is, there never was a format war because OXML is and will never be a universal ISO-certified file format. Game over. Microsoft lost. Two-thirds of the JTC1 nations rejected OXML outright due to its innumerable contradictions that were found in the first 30 days. Fast-tracking via Ecma didn't work as Microsoft planned. The review period was extended for an unprecedented 90 more days and so far Microsoft is flummoxed and silent in response to OXML's inherent flaws and weaknesses.

Please Mary Jo, don't enable Microsoft's best attempts to turn you into Judith Miller. The dirty little secret is that the 'translator' only works on Novell's version of OpenOffice.

The OASIS OpenDocument (ODF) format is the winner, and from coast to coast, states from Massachusetts to Texas to California want ODF, period. Besides, the endless number of proprietary dependencies upon the OXML file format which cascade throughout their software stack — from IE7, Vista, Exchange/Sharepoint through SQL Server and GreatPlains/Dynamics made sure OXML was dead on arrival. Note the key word is compatibility according to Rob Wier, who writes with far better clarity than I could achieve on this subject. Readers owe it to themselves to read his post at:

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/03/compatibility-according-to-humpty.html

Posted by: zaine_ridling   Posted on: 03/05/07 You are currently: a Guest | Log in | Terms of Use

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