07.02.10
HP Needs to Support OpenDocument Format (ODF) to Help Itself
Summary: HP is launching more Linux-centred services, but ODF support is still lacking or deficient
FOR THOSE who do not remember any of it, HP helped Microsoft push politicians to override technical decisions and help endorse a proprietary format, OOXML.
Based on this Australian Windows booster, HP is flying people in to show them its Linux-powered or Linux-enabled technology, having recently acquired Palm and some other Linux-oriented assets.
HP invited me to its regional launch in Hong Kong of its new range of emailable printers, ones which naturally work as normal over corded USB, wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, and now over a cloud-service enabled email printing service that lets you send an email (with or without attachments) to your ePrint capable HP printer, which then gets printed out in anywhere from a few seconds to less than a minute.
The Microsoft-affiliated Australian Web site called APC Magazine has also covered this.
Apps can be browsed and installed directly from the printers as well as online through the cloud-based ePrintCenter hub, which is also the mechanism for printing documents by emailing them to the printer.
From the same site we learn that HP does not yet support ODF, which is the international standard.
The service works with documents in PDF and Microsoft Office formats as well as JPEG images. Other file types such as the OpenDocument XML format of OpenOffice are not currently supported, although HP spokesman told APC that
“we have a roadmap and over time we will be expanding the types of documents we support.”
These types will hopefully include ODF. HP has been transforming itself to become more Linux friendly (sometimes at the expense of Vista 7); imperative to GNU/Linux adoption is the neglect of proprietary formats such as OOXML. Two days ago I received a .docx file by E-mail, for the first time ever. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
July 3, 2010 at 11:33 am
Oh … my.
That e-mail for a printer has got to be embarrassing as it can get for HP. That has to be one of the most inefficient, insecure and clumsy ways of getting data from one point to another. Aren’t marketeers required to run anything past engineering anymore, or have the engineers fallen in quality that much? Are the new hires that lacking in education that this is what they come up with?
As for ‘later’, that’s a standard M$ tactic to get people to sit on their hands and let M$ encroach. Name one case where a proposal to implement MS-only technology first has expanded to become cross-platform or open standards?
Files-over-e-mail is also a red alert for the pathetic state of IT staff if they aren’t able to set up their users’ desktops to be able to transfer files from the desktop to the printer.
The only system that is virtually impossible to network is Windows, so it is no surprise that this embarrassing gaff locks users deeper into M$ formats. If we’re lucky, we’ll see a prohibition of shipping these to the EU, where the OpenDocument Format is the way forward.
HP could save a lot of money, time, work, and reputation by putting effort into opening drivers, helping CUPS development, or other cross-platform support.
Needs Sunlight said,
July 3, 2010 at 11:34 am
” Two days ago I received a .docx file by E-mail, for the first time ever. ”
The sender, I hope, was severely reprimanded. There’s not much good that can be said about an individual that would intentionally bring toxic formats and the software attached to them into their own country. No need to tolerate them trying for your country, too.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
The thing is, it’s a company that invited me for a job interview. It shows that they are hardcore on Microsoft, so I’ve cancelled that interview.