10.12.12
Gemini version available ♊︎Imposing OOXML and Microsoft Lock-in on Android Users
Summary: Microsoft brings proprietary lock-in with OOXML to Android
TECHRIGHTS has explained Google's bad decision to spread OOXML rather than ODF and some ask: Why Is Google Not Supporting The Open Document Formats?
This is a true story: “Today my wife forwarded me an email from her Nexus S asking if I could open the attachment as she could not. I replied, “where is it not opening – your Android phone or the Chromebook?” She replied, “Either.”
“I looked at the email, it was a presentation from her friend in .odt format. A friend who we recently converted from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.”
“hat this means in practice is that it’s going to be really difficult to displace proprietary formats like .doc and .xls, even with the best will in the world.”
–Glyn MoodyI had a similar experience this month. Now Microsoft makes the Office lock-in worse at the expense of the Windows lock-in.
“It’s clear that Google is aiming at the huge repository of users of M$’s office suite rather than GNU/Linux or FLOSS users,” writes Pogson. Later he wrote that Microsoft sacrifices the Windows cash cow to save the Office cash cow.
Glyn Moody, being timely enough, addresses the issue of network effect impeding open formats like ODF. To quote: “As the research notes, this is a indication that networks are very powerful – exactly as we might have surmised given the experience in the open source world. What this means in practice is that it’s going to be really difficult to displace proprietary formats like .doc and .xls, even with the best will in the world. It also shows the importance of getting governmental affirmative action that explicitly recommends open formats in order to overcome these network effects – or at least speed things up.”
ODF/OOXML remain an important topic here; it doesn’t get the amount of coverage it deserves from the press. █
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