OpenDocument
I don’t think many people realize the importance of this initiative. OpenDocument is basically a push for all productivity software suites to use a standardized format, essentially making the GUI the distinguishing factor. Besides the fact that the whole world would get better products from this, it would also force overdue competition for Microsoft. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why someone would rather pay $600+ for MS Office, when they can get a comparable package for free in OpenOffice. The only thing I can think of is that people resist change. This is where stressing the importance of OpenDocument comes in. If everyone agrees that we should be using a standard format, then acted on it, Microsoft would have to redevelop their next version of office to be compatible or continue to lose market share. I will give MS credit in that they have a nicely polished suite of apps in their Office package, but it is not worth the money they charge for it. I don’t think everything should be free, but if MS Office cost $100 or $150, then I might consider using it again, but that type of price cut would require them to adopt the OpenDocument standard to reduce the effort necessary for each new version. Until then, I’ll stick with my OpenOffice.
For more information regarding OpenDocument, check out the article at WikiPedia.
One Response to “OpenDocument”
Posted by: Trey’s Blog » Blog Archive » OpenDocument Part 2 - 11/01/2005
[...] Read OpenDocument Part 1 here. [...]
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