Microsoft Office to support more default formats
Microsoft has announced that it will be supporting more file formats in its Office suite in the first half of 2009, and the response from the European Union was one of skepticism.
Microsoft intends to increase PDF support natively in Office, as well as add the Open Document Format (ODF), as a part of Service Pack 2 for Office 2007. The timing of this announcement comes after they have been successful in getting their own native document format, OpenXML, approved as an ISO standard, and is most likely being done to prevent attrition from a variety of Office competitors (free, and otherwise) that will be supporting the ODF.
Ostensibly, the EU is aiming at Microsoft because of the lack of interoperability, which is everyone's current bandwagon, but there are other areas that I wish they would focus on if interoperability was truly their foremost concern. I'm still trying to figure out why they should even have any jurisdiction over application document formats in the first place...
These grand interoperability quests are always supposed to be a benefit to the consumer, but they're not targeting any actual consumer needs. They really only benefit the other vendors in this space. And Microsoft's support of alternate formats will only help Microsoft and the free vendors. The other vendors with paid products are going to suffer attrition from the freeware options.
We have a year or so to see how this turns out...
About Logik!
Andrew S. Baker aka ASB aka Logik!
Andrew is an accomplished, hands-on executive with broad technology expertise and proven track record of generating sustainable business results through implementation of effective processes and controls, design and deployment of superior technology infrastructure, and strategic and tactical leadership of IT teams.
He regularly provides thought leadership on business and technology issues via mailing lists, technical forums, blogs, professional networking groups, as well as contributions to podcasts, webinars, and technical/business magazine articles. Additionally, Andrew holds active roles on several boards and committees for non-profit organizations, and within the Seventh-day Adventist church.
His personal interests include Astronomy, Basketball, Bible Study, Chess, Comics, Computers,
Family Life Ministries, Reading, Strategy/Role Playing games, and Professional Networking...
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