[ILUG] Star Office

[Niall Walsh]

CP Hennessy wrote:

>And with MSOffice 12 (aka MSOffice 2006? ) MS are supposed to be making 
>their file formats completely XML ( by DEFAULT !!) having multiple files and 
>zipping them - just like OOo. They are even talking about plugins to allow 
>older versions of MSOffice to be able to save in such formats :
>  
>
Just because something is xml does not mean it is any way 
intelligible.   To rework an old post of mine to slashdot:

<msext foo="8667892984637829298467478" aaah="BDASJKKBEUJAMS" 
wtf=",./.,^&&*"_$£"/.,"><rofl w00t="LOL">MMMMMMMMMM</rofl></msext>

Which should be interpretted as:

"MS 0wns your data"

There's nothing to suggest the XML format/dtd will actually be 
meaningful as all MS cares about is that their programs can re-interpret 
them.  Also don't forget MS love of DRM so you can possibly expect that 
all files will be encrypted, possibly so they are only readable by the 
correct MS programs (sales pitch "ensures your files cannot be corrupted 
by malicious programs so no virus could change random digits in your 
spreadsheets").  This could lead to the above "file" becoming:

<827636 
72653="748392652932897562702983776567657892983267367475632800984758628654672508268769898647697853872891">

>http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2005/06/01/424085.aspx
>
>Is it vaporware
>
Maybe, do we really care?

> or just a stalling tactic ?
>
Probably.  As was mentioned in the recent WinFS discussions MS likes to 
announce great features of future releases which never arrive, simply to 
dissuade people from leaving them (and to encourage people to plan to 
move forward with them).

> ( or am I too cynical ? )
>  
>
Can you be too cynical of MS? :-P

>CPH
>  
>
Personally I think the only sure way for the Free Office suites to 
dissappear in the next few years is for them to adopt MS formats as 
their native formats.   Their is pressure on MS now thanks to the 
adoption of the Oasis File formats by the/some Free Office suites which 
leads to National governments (and similar entities) who wish to have 
their information stored in a standard format (and may even have laws to 
exert them to do such things).   If suddenly the Free suites went to MS 
formats I think it would be seen as an admission that the MS way is the 
way to go for the files so why would anyone use a program which has to 
try and hack compatibility and can probably never fully do it?

I think the right decisions have been made and now we just have to wait 
and see if MS Office suite monopoly can be broken by their clients 
insisting on Oasis support in MS Office.

Niall