XimianDesktop2 non-free format tendencies

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 07:16:07PM +0200, Christian Surchi wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 07:02:07PM +0200, Bernhard Reiter wrote:
> > Most disturbing is that they changed the standard save format
> > for Openoffice to be a propietory format,
> > not helping  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html at all.
> 

http://lwn.net/Articles/34940/
	They've also tweaked OOo to save files in Microsoft Office
	formats by default, rather than the standard OOo formats.

> Which proprietary format?

Picky today?

You are right in a way, Openoffice does save the file and can read it.
Thus the subset of the microsoft formats that Openoffice can write
and read is a format for that we have a Free Software implementation for.
However microsoft still controls that formats, the subset will
not be the same subset that the various products of microsoft support.
And using a format like this is a big signal.

From a comment of mdekkers
	 Those times that I do need to send out a file, I could
	either send it in OOo format (an OASIS XML standard) or in MS Format
	(non-standard binary). The ximian way of thinking about this seems
	to indicate that to them, "looking to use MS for the outside world"
	is vastly more important then what goes on within the firm.
	Moreover, sending out your data in MS Format perpetuates a bad
	habit. Sending it in OOo formats means I am furthering a standard,
	educate my peers, and send a strong message about standards
	adherance to the outside world. 
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