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    • Sun, IBM Continue Open Standards Double-Speak [view article]
      Actually, you're wrong on a couple of counts.

      First, the document format standards discussion is incredibly important for the future of IT. Have you ever wanted to exchange a document, spreadsheet, or presentation with someone? Then you needed the standard. This is far, far from "a solution looking for a problem".

      The current de-facto standard is "Microsoft Office", which equals "you gotta buy Microsoft Office if you want to share documents". The open community has created ODF as a standard, and OpenOffice as an open-source implementation, which is challenging the MS Office domination, just as Linux is challenging MS Windows. Microsoft has countered with OOXML, which greatly favors them as the incumbent, because it's very Office-centric. Depending on who wins the standards debate, Microsoft will either remain on top of the pile, or will be forced to move towards truly open standards.

      Second, document standards are not a "front for Sun and IBM to sell more software". The moral equivalency argument of "Sun/IBM are just like Microsoft" just doesn't hold water. The implementation of the ODF standard is open and non-proprietary, just like Linux. IBM, and Sun to a lesser degree, really want to participate in an open market, where open source and competitors can play, because they think it's a better business model for them.       Mar 13 02:55 PM
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