Aping game
Summary: Microsoft is the one struggling to catch up in an age of Linux expansion, but LibreOffice continues to chase Microsoft's proprietary formats
ONE of our readers, Marti, alleges that
Microsoft is copying Android. As he puts it, "[o]n Android ICS they are simply widgets, which show the latest updates of your email and social media, or whatever widget you place on one of the preferred multiple "virtual desktops". You simply have the ability to "browse" trough the history, by tipping the widgets and scrolling down (like in a web-browser).
"Marti provides some more examples where Microsoft is copying Android, just like it copies KDE.""Windows€® 8 Live Tiles€® on the other had are showing a "history" of the most recent updates in a "interactive" manner. Meaning text is scrolled continually on multiple Tiles€®. At first this seems quite funny and sexy, but trust me, it gets on your nerves within 15 minutes."
Marti provides some more examples where Microsoft is copying Android, just like it copies KDE. A Gartner analyst's negative remarks on this copycat act of Microsoft are spreading further to say that Vista 8 is not suitable for enterprises, just as OOXML causes nothing but headaches in businesses. On the face of it, attempts are being made to bridge some gaps:
If in past, you had trouble importing Microsoft Publisher documents in LibreOffice, you may get relief soon. Bernnan Vincent, a GSoC student, has created libmspub library capable of reading Microsoft Publisher files and converting it to SVG and open document format.
OOXML support in LibreOffice is a case of following Microsoft rather than leading with ODF. In a future episode of
TechBytes we will talk to someone from the LibreOffice team (
Charles-H. Schulz and explore the rationale of the strategy, e.g. whether
SUSE's relationship with Microsoft played a role in this. Before we get to that we are going to release an episode where Stallman tells me about phone surveillance. With Skype, Microsoft is now
tracking people's phonecalls too. See our
Skype wiki page for more information and some background. As
one new report puts it: "The question was: “Is Skype snooping on your conversations?” The answer is yes.
"According to a Microsoft Skype spokesperson, “As was true before the Microsoft acquisition, Skype co-operates with law enforcement agencies as is legally required and technically feasible.” So what the heck does that mean?" It probably just means that Microsoft continues to be an enemy of the population, and furthermore toppling Microsoft is a good thing.
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