Summary: The latest success stories of ODF include a hospital in Denmark and legislative moves in Hungary

Since Microsoft was unable to properly support ODF [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], Sun continues to make available an ODF plug-in for Microsoft Office. And alas, nonetheless, someone in Wikipedia has already bothered to insert the claim that Microsoft Office 2010 will support ODF, without any citation as proof. In Twitter, writes one person: "Ha ha nice WIndows 7 ships with ODF support inside of WordPad! I wonder how borked it will be on writing out"

A hospital in Denmark seems to have paid close attention because rather than comply with forced upgrades and pseudo-support of ODF, it has decided to obtain the plug-in from Sun and it can now exchange data as ODF. The Open Source Observatory and Repository has these details:

The Danish Ã…rhus University Hospital in Risskov, a long-time user of OpenOffice, says there are no problems at all exchanging ODF-based documents with other hospitals using Microsoft's proprietary Office 2003.

The trick is to have Microsoft users install the free Sun Microsystems ODF plugin. "Once that is installed, there are no more problems in exchanging ODF-based text documents", says Jens Christian Damgaard one of the hospital's IT administrators.

Recommendations of Sun's ODF plug-in have become commonplace. It is better to avoid what Microsoft claims to be its support of ODF.

“It is better to avoid what Microsoft claims to be its support of ODF.”Considering what Microsoft did in Denmark, it would also be reasonable for this hospital to follow the footsteps of some French hospitals which migrated to OpenOffice.org successfully. It's about freedom (control), cost savings, and fidelity/preservation.

ODF has already been made an Hungarian national standard and Rob Weir claims that ODF is now "endorsed by the Hungarian Standards Institution as a Hungarian National Standard." Among those passing on the message, there are many people that include Bob Sutor, Weir's colleague. There are no additional pieces of information about this yet, just the quick word from IBM.

More informative pages about ODF continue to appear, whereas OOXML seems to lead to backlash. Nessuno has found this new call for questions about Microsoft Office. The Wall Street Journal published many that include:

Can anyone tell me when MSFT will produce a genuinely compatible Mac version of Office instead of buggy, crippled version that endlessly nags about its shortcomings with incessant messages about compatibility, macros, etc.

It should be an embarrassment for a company like Microsoft to produce something like Mac Office that always seems like it is going to fall apart just when you must depend on it. With all of its much advertised innovation capability, why can’t MSFT just fix Office right?

For those of us who use Office daily, it is a source of chronic irritation that never fails to fail to satisfy.

And another one:

Microsoft’s Office and Madoff’s Office have had a good reputation and will have a similar future.

And another one:

When will Microsoft *fully* support the Open Document Format (ODF) worldwide standard in Office and drop the Microsoft Office OpenXML?

And another one:

Two Questions: 1) Summarize why we should continue to use Microsoft Office instead of “Cloud Computing” and 2) What is the upgrade cost for office from Office 2003?

And another one:

When will Word support ODF in a way that will interoperate properly with other ODF-based word processors?

And another one:

Will Microsoft ever create a version of MS office that is interoperable in both directions?

And another one:

Tell me WHY I need to switch from office 2003 to 2007? Is there a significant benefit to the average user? I personally have no desire to learn an all new interface if there is no real benefit. My company never moved off of XP and is also holding back on Office 2007.

And one last tidbit:

Is it true that the Office 2007 Interface change was so that MS could use a patented technology to distingush MS Office from OpenOffice.

Nessuno asks: "Could it be that cash cow #1 is feeling the heat?" ⬆

“It’s a Simple Matter of [Microsoft’s] Commercial Interests!“

--Microsoft on OOXML