Saving in OOXML Format Now Probably A Bad Idea 150
orlando writes "Much drama is unfolding prior to the OOXML Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva, currently schedule for the end of February. After that there's a subsequent 30 day period while countries can still change their vote. As a result, Bob Sutor is recommending that saving your documents in OOXML format right now is probably about the riskiest thing you can do, if you are concerned with long term interoperability. At this point nobody has the vaguest idea what OOXML will look like in February, or even whether it will be in any sort of stable condition by the end of March. 'While we are talking about interoperability, who else do you think is going to provide long term complete support for this already-dead OOXML format that Microsoft Office 2007 uses today? Interoperability means that other applications can process the files fully and not just products from Microsoft. I would even go so far as to go back to those few OOXML files you have already created and create .doc, .ppt, and .xls versions of them for future use, if you want to make sure you can read them and you don't want to commit yourself to Microsoft's products for the rest of their lives.'"
Unwarrented (Score:1, Insightful)
Not risky (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm not too worried (Score:0, Insightful)
It's not the standards bodies that drive the market ( despite what most of us would prefer ), it's the demand in the market itself.
Let's just make one thing clear. (Score:5, Insightful)
You can be 100% compliant with the published spec
Re:I'm not too worried (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Future compatibility? What about now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apart from the OS, of course.
Tagging (Score:5, Insightful)
"whatcouldpossiblygowrong" is pretty entertaining when used sparingly, like maybe on a story about a new robotic dentist. But when we are talking about document formats, I think it starts to lose that special something.
Use MS-OOXML and reduce confusion (Score:5, Insightful)
[repost]
That's the point (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't think Microsoft *planned* it this way, did you?
The *only* reason Microsoft purchased... I mean, went through the IEEE standardization process was to fast-track to ISO. This is because places like Massachusetts were pondering passing resolutions that would require certain government agencies (in the case of Mass, the executive branch) to publish documents in a standard, open format. Microsoft, of course, fought that with money, lobbying, and disinformation (Microsoft's best weapons).
By getting a rubber-stamp standard, Microsoft can continue doing exactly what they do now: locking in customers by creating the perception that theirs is the only office suite that can handle the "standard" correctly, making the other suites look inferior (despite the actual compliance of the other suites).
Notice the timing of OOXML-- it happened just as OOo was beginning to render
I don't know why Microsoft doesn't believe they can compete on merit alone. They almost *always* resort to market manipulation to maintain the upper hand. It'd be funny, if they weren't teabagging capitalism in the process.
Re:N*** still a bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks!
Re:Future compatibility? What about now? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'm not too worried (Score:3, Insightful)
This is crazy. (Score:3, Insightful)
For myself, I'm a pretty savvy computer user. I've been on them for a while and know their ins and outs better than even most Slashdotters (no, not better than YOU, of course!) I like standards and support them, moreso with web standards than file formats. I don't really care what file format I use so long as it works. My office product of choice is Office 2007. I happen to like it a lot and I could care less how it saves its files. I know that 5, 10, 20 years from now I would still be able to open the files, though I have no idea why I would want to.
Re:This is crazy. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or so you think. It seems that every MS "standard" is nothing more then just a memory dump of the product in question. For all we know, MS could release an Office 2007 Service Pack 1 that changes the format however could ignore all data on CDs/Flash drives when they update all the files. It doesn't help that chances are you are going to have to buy an Office 2009 to use the new OOXML format to even open newer OOXML files. The problem is MS is a company and a large one that doesn't care about stabbing its customers in the back to make a buck.
Re:N*** still a bad idea (Score:2, Insightful)
Worst case goes like this (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows Update to the rescue! So MS pushes out an update that patches Office. Now it saves in the real format, the one that came out of the February meeting...
But now nobody's saved stuff can be read back in.
But hey, that's all just hypothetical. Microsoft wouldn't be that stupid...
Would they?
Re:This is crazy. (Score:2, Insightful)
Governmental bodies, corporations, and other institutions may indeed have a need to keep their documents available and readable for more than 20 years. (Imagine birth certificates stored in a obsolete, proprietary, undocumented, binary format on media that can only be read on equipment that is no longer available. Hilarity ensues.)
Re:Niggers still a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Since we're not going to run out of idiots anytime soon, they will use the word just because it is perceived as offensive. The only solution is to stop being offended by it.
The only way you can be offended by somebody (you or not) being called a nigger is if you yourself think that being a nigger is bad. Once you realize this, it's not an insult anymore. Heck, it's often used as a term of pride (that's bad too).
Re:Office 2007 default switcher app? (Score:3, Insightful)
That could just link to OOo -- tell them to use that, instead :-)
Yes, I know it's not a complete substitute -- I have to use MS Office because my customers require me to use forms with macros that OOo won't handle (they pay the piper, they call the tune) -- but it would be fine for most users.
Oh, and of course, you'd still have to deal with the wrong default format. Drat, it was looking so promising...
Re:This is crazy. (Score:4, Insightful)
Formats based on open standards guarantee that it is possible to write a reader from the spec no matter how long ago the document was created. I don't think there's a single legitimate argument against this.