Open warfare

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/857.html

 

[ic]

But Microsoft SA platform strategy manager Paulo Ferreira says Open XML and ODF cater to different market needs. He says the subcommittee had a “clear anti-Microsoft bias” and says subcommittee members spent time arguing the merits of ODF, which was not their mandate.

Even if that unsubstantiated accusation is true, what Microsoft should be asking itself, is: why does everyone hate Microsoft so much - there must be a reason...

 

[SlappY]

Same reason everyone hates the guy that got an A+ in a school exam. People cant handle other peoples success. MS has pulled some tricks, but every company does that. Its called strategy and all big business does it. Capitalist society works like this.

 

[Deenem]

Actually it's called 'a crime' and that's why M$ was found guilty of breaking the law and punished.

 

[JTech]

Gotta love this gem

Would companies and governments be forced to publish all their documents in both formats, he asks. “Will we have to do that just because someone [Microsoft] can’t play nice in the playground of life?”

Sounds a lot like Telkom too

 

[oober]

The question you must ask is why does M$ not work with the opensource community to better the ODF standard so that everyone can use it?

Instead they are trying to fastrack their own standard...

 

[Perdition]

The question you must ask is why does M$ not work with the opensource community to better the ODF standard so that everyone can use it?

Instead they are trying to fastrack their own standard...

Remind me where it says nobody can use OXML? Also nobody is forced to use OXML and plug-ins for ODF are being developed for Office.

 

[noxibox]

Same reason everyone hates the guy that got an A+ in a school exam.

With good reason if that person had achieved that mark by threatening to break the examiner's legs.

 

[SlappY]

With good reason if that person had achieved that mark by threatening to break the examiner's legs.

I assure you MS is not the only people that do this. Apple have done it plenty. Any major company in existence has done it. Tell me, are you going to stop drinking Coke cause they dont play ethically? Nope, didnt think so. And dont even give me that anticompetitiveness BS, why arent Linux haulled over the coals for their packaged deals??? Cause it doesnt matter who the supplier is, the end user get the same experience. You wanna see closed formats, try Apple out for size (I mean their entire system!) Same ol. People keep carrying on as if MS has frikking assasinated the president.
Tell me, where is Linux's free console and game dev platform, or their free robotics platform (yip MS even has one of these...for FREE... those capitalist swines), or there free TOP CLASS (not the crap Linux it ships with) dev environment platform. Or their total media intergation solutions, or their...I could go one forever here. Lets not forget to mention the framework 3 stuff. WCF, WPF, WWF... all for... you guessed it... f**k all, free nothing! With top of the line support to boot! Yes... MS you evil devils... stop screwing me over by making me buy you operating system! damm you..

 

[kilo39]

It's not about 'free.' It's about a destructive footprint that wishes to control all standards at the expense of entire industries (not least the www.)

Free you say? Be assured nothing in M$ world would be free without the influence of the open source community (a community M$ has gone out of its way to destroy.)

 

[SlappY]

Free you say? Be assured nothing in M$ world would be free without the influence of the open source community (a community M$ has gone out of its way to destroy.)

Yet the net result is better. Guys need to remember MS is constantly evolving and the arguments of the past are actually waning a bit thin now. They have really pick their game up a hell of a lot. They are VERY community focused (influenced by open source as the academics would put it) They plug millions into programs to develop the industry as a whole. Almost every one of their standards for techs developed in that last 5 years are interopperable, and they are touching almost every community possible that has anything to do with intelligent processing of sorts. But also bear in mind they are a business, they need to make money, so dont begrudge them when they do. For all their evils they do a damm good job that no one else has been able to rival. Imagine where we would be now if MS didnt copy Macs OS. Or if they didnt make the mouse mainstream, or didnt support an open hardware architecture from the beginning. Infact they were the pioneers in "open architecture" thinking when the rest of the industry was playing their cards so close to their chests (much like what Apple still does to this day).

 

[TiredOfWaiting]

Personally I prefer 1 global operating system with 1 development platform and 1 document standard. It makes it easier for everyone since there's only 1 platform/format to develop for.

 

[Perdition]

Personally I prefer 1 global operating system with 1 development platform and 1 document standard. It makes it easier for everyone since there's only 1 platform/format to develop for.

Problem with this is any proposed change would get weighed down in a quagmire of politics.

Public companies have shareholders to please and waiting for standards to be hammered out is sometimes just not an option. Should MS have waited for ODF to be fully compatible with Office before releasing Office 2007? I say that's an unrealistic expectation from a shareholder perspective.

 

[kilo39]

Yet the net result is better. Guys need to remember MS is constantly evolving and the arguments of the past are actually waning a bit thin now. They have really pick their game up a hell of a lot. They are VERY community focused (influenced by open source as the academics would put it) They plug millions into programs to develop the industry as a whole. Almost every one of their standards for techs developed in that last 5 years are interopperable, and they are touching almost every community possible that has anything to do with intelligent processing of sorts. But also bear in mind they are a business, they need to make money, so dont begrudge them when they do. For all their evils they do a damm good job that no one else has been able to rival. Imagine where we would be now if MS didnt copy Macs OS. Or if they didnt make the mouse mainstream, or didnt support an open hardware architecture from the beginning. Infact they were the pioneers in "open architecture" thinking when the rest of the industry was playing their cards so close to their chests (much like what Apple still does to this day).

Nonsense. M$ has consistently tried to control standards (exactly as this thread.) Standards approved by the world at large and concomitant authorities.

Open standards such as the www are beyond business and benefit mankind. M$ has consistently hijacked standards (as it is trying to do here.) If not hijack 'invent' a "competing" standard; using their market dominance and budget to control the world for profit; no Bill's 'philanthropy' doesn't make up for the damage done.

 

[SlappY]

Nonsense. M$ has consistently tried to control standards (exactly as this thread.) Standards approved by the world at large and concomitant authorities.

Open standards such as the www are beyond business and benefit mankind. M$ has consistently hijacked standards (as it is trying to do here.) If not hijack 'invent' a "competing" standard; using their market dominance and budget to control the world for profit; no Bill's 'philanthropy' doesn't make up for the damage done.

But why is it so terrible. If they were doing an awful job well then fine. But they not. They are doing an amazing job. They have done something Open Source can only dream of and integrated every single one of their products....and I mean every single one. So surely this should be the standard. Common sense says so. I can gaurentee you you will levergage more off a MS platform than you will off a multi-technology OS platform, whether it be business or personal computing. They got it all. Sure, they are not infallable, anyone in the IT industry with half a brain will tell you that there is no perfect software. But they are def the damm closest thing there is to it.

 

[TiredOfWaiting]

Problem with this is any proposed change would get weighed down in a quagmire of politics.

Public companies have shareholders to please and waiting for standards to be hammered out is sometimes just not an option. Should MS have waited for ODF to be fully compatible with Office before releasing Office 2007? I say that's an unrealistic expectation from a shareholder perspective.

No, I'm actually saying that MS shouldn't give a flying **** about the ODF. Keep everything closed and just grow their 80 odd percent market share.

 

[bekdik]

Personally I prefer 1 global operating system with 1 development platform and 1 document standard. It makes it easier for everyone since there's only 1 platform/format to develop for.

How would you go about choosing these?

 

[TiredOfWaiting]

How would you go about choosing these?

You wouldn't. If the damn regulators just stop sticking their noses in everywhere the dominant format would kill the others and we'd be left with only one.

 

[McSack]

You wouldn't. If the damn regulators just stop sticking their noses in everywhere the dominant format would kill the others and we'd be left with only one.

The problem with that is we may land up with the k@kker format being dominant (think back to VHS vs Beta)

 

[Perdition]

No, I'm actually saying that MS shouldn't give a flying **** about the ODF. Keep everything closed and just grow their 80 odd percent market share.

Ahh sorry I misunderstood you. I think MS are taking the middle of the road approach which IMO is the best for their customers i.e. a format that anyone can freely implement while maintaining control of the specification.

At the end of the day it's good that there is at least some competition to force them to keep up the quality of their products.