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  • Stef 9:08 am on 1 June, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , odf, , ,   

    Oracle ‘donates’ OpenOffice.org to Apache foundation 

    Oracle has done what Sun should have done a long time ago: put OO.org code into the hand of an independent foundation. The good news is that now a wider participation from corporations and individuals is possible. Hell, even Microsoft can now participate into OO.org development. I hope that soon the fork can be reconciled, too.

    My first thoughts is that Apache Foundation is a good home for Open Document Format, ODF. If the license will also change to Apache there will be more opportunities to create an ecosystem on top of the standardized format.The free software movement needs a thriving ecosystem around ODF so that we can edit and exchange office documents between computers, mobile and other devices without sacrifices. So far this ecosystem has failed to materialize and OpenOffice.org as a tool has many flaws (bad/old GUI, heavy and in areas like presentation is just bad).

    I personally welcome the change as I never believed that The Document Foundation had enough steam in its engine to radically improve the product. But I believe it can still maintain and improve LibreOffice until Apache’s community will start rolling the next generation of desktop productivity tools.

    Oracle ‘donates’ OpenOffice.org to Apache foundation | ZDNet UK.

    Comments from Rob Weir and Novell’s Michael Meeks.

     

    • Rob Weir 4:51 pm on 4 June, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the analysis. I agree that the ODF support side is critical. Although some have criticized the he move to Apache 2.0 license from the previous copyleft LGPLv4, the Free Software Foundation actually recommends this:

      “There are only a couple of kinds of projects that we think should not have any copyleft at all. The first is very small projects.
      .
      .
      .
      The second is projects that implement free standards that are competing against proprietary standards, such as Ogg Vorbis (which competes against MP3 audio) and WebM (which competes against MPEG-4 video). For these projects, widespread use of the code is vital for advancing the cause of free software, and does more good than a copyleft on the project’s code would do.”

      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html

      As the leading application supporting ODF, I think this is a good argument for using a permissive license for OpenOffice, to make this ODF support ubiquitous.

      • Stef 7:03 pm on 4 June, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        I agree with you Rob: the ASL is a good license to build a framework that supports ODF. LibreOffice may well continue to exist and be licensed under LGPL and keep existing, even thriving, as a desktop tool. I think there is space for both, as long as RedHat, Novell, Canonical and co. keep investing in The Document Foundation.

  • Stef 10:02 am on 31 March, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , odf, ,   

    Why I wish I could reject your email attachment 

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today launched a campaign calling on all computer users to start politely rejecting email attachments sent in secret and proprietary formats: for freedom and the good of the web!  I believe that open standards are the best form to convey information and I think that attachments contribute to spread proprietary formats.

    Unfortunately I think that this campaign cannot be joined by mobile phone users because it’s damaging them. None of the mobile operating systems I have stumbled upon offers support for OO.org. Maybe on Android there is a way to read attached ODF files, but through Google Docs (support of Impress file format is missing, though). ODF support on BlackBerry was announced but I couldn’t find mention on their website. I think Meego (formerly known as Maemo) has native support for ODF, but very few people use it. Not sure about other OSes. A search for OpenOffice.org/ODF on Nokia Ovi Store produced no result. That alone excludes 40% of European mobile phone users (millions of people, including me) from joining this campaign. I wish I could join this campaign, but for me is still impossible to view an .odt or .opd on the move, so I prefer to receive a .doc or .ppt that I can use on my OpenOffice.org desktop and also look at it on my phone.

    Mobile users still have too little freedom to reject proprietary formats. For Document Freedom Day I would like to add a new item to the FSF’s list of priorities: support for ODF on mobile operating systems, from Android to Symbian to others.

    via Why I’m rejecting your email attachment — Free Software Foundation.

     

    • Alexandre Oliva 10:27 am on 31 March, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I’m pretty sure I can run abiword, and even OOo, on my OpenMoko. I’m very sorry you prefer to be trapped not only by the software on your phone, but also by the file formats you choose :-(

    • Stef 11:27 am on 31 March, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Alexandre: while it’s a fact that it’s possible to run AbiWord on a few hundred OpenMoko phones out there, I doubt that you can call that an option.

      I think that the timing of this campaign is skewed: before asking a big sacrifice to all the people that already use OO.org, but also use to receive attachments on mobile devices, we should make it a priority to fully enjoy open formats on those devices.

    • Alexandre Oliva 11:47 am on 31 March, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Chicken and egg? Why would handcufphone vendors add support for a Free format if we didn’t mind that they kept us handcuffed? They already won’t let us add it ourselves! Besides, one campaing doesn’t exclude the other. The campaign for Free Software on all computing devices has been ongoing for 25+ years! The problem is the non-Free Software on the device. Maybe the solution, until more phones are Free, is to use phones as just phones, and have other portable computers around in which you can Be Free! Maybe it’s something else. But of one thing I’m sure: accepting to live with the problem and insisting that others do so too won’t fix it, it’ll rather make it worse. And while we can’t control the locked-up devices, we can (often) control our own choices, so we should use our power and freedom of choice cleverly, in a way that brings us closer to the solution. Rejecting the devices and the files are both smart uses of this power. Accepting them and promoting their acceptance works against us. It might be more comfortable for you, but it’s also more comfortable for the vendors who want to keep on imposing their choices on you, and on everyone else.

    • Stef 12:00 pm on 31 March, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      it’s not a chicken and egg. You can easily install free software to any phone now. Many good and (almost) free/libre mobile OS exist already (see Bradley’s post). The only thing missing is a free sw reader for ODF on at least some of these OSes in order for this campaign to be widely adopted.

    • MJ Ray 12:12 am on 1 April, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Did you know that the top of this article is obscured by a graphic whinging that mobile javascript is switched off on my phone’s browser? Ironic, given the context. Physician, heal thyself!

      It shouldn’t be too hard to get ODT files readable on mobiles with an sxw2text approach, if that would be enough.

    • Stef 9:41 am on 1 April, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      @MJ I didn’t know about the graphic. I’ll do some test.

      I think that the sxw2text approach would be enough for text attachments, but it would leave open the issue with spreadsheets and presentations.

  • Stef 3:09 pm on 3 April, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , odf, , ,   

    OOXML: free software is back to square one 

    We’re back to square one, 1 ISO standard on each side of the barricade since Microsoft managed to convince the ISO that its proprietary standard, OOXML’  deserves the approved stamp. For all the money Google and IBM have thrown trying to stop it, it seems they’ve lost this battle. But I’ve learned yesterday from a ISO member that there are still 60 days for any country to appeal the decision. Given the irregularities mentioned by many, this is not a remote possibility.

    But anyway, I wish we would all move on and focus on two main actions for two main groups of people.’  Developers should focus to deliver good code to compete with Microsoft Office.’  Advocates and lobbyist should instead convince Microsoft customers and Microsoft execs directly to modify the Open Specification Promise in order to fix its shortcomings (and make it compatible with GPLv3).’  I think this will help free software (whose interests don’t necessarily coincide with those of IBM and Google) and I’m sure that there are people at Microsoft ready to listen.

     

  • Stef 10:45 am on 31 March, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , odf, , ,   

    Final stages of the office documents standards war 

    If you close your eyes and stay in silence for a few minutes you will hear the echo of the fight engaged by Microsoft against Google and IBM (with many more smaller allies) to dominate the future of office documents. I’m now following from the distance and there is so much dust it’s impossible to see who is winning.

    It’s clear though who is losing: ISO, the once glorious International Standards Organization lost. Its image of highly respected organization is devastated by the abuse of the inevitable cracks in its regulament that led to many irregularities. It’s easy to blame Microsoft this time: their OOXML proposal is not ready, they’re late in its development and it’s so bloated it’s impossible to implement. On the contrary ISO approved ODF (ISO 26300) is good enough, stable and widely used already.

    It’s a sad, sad story, however it will end.

    If you’re interested to discuss the issues of open standards and you’re in Milano on April 2nd, I’ll be at OMAT360 to listen to the round table about the implications of file format standards in the society. It’s going to be interesting, with speakers from Microsoft, Adobe, OO.org, public administration and others.

     

  • Stef 12:38 pm on 26 March, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , odf,   

    Celebrating Document Freedom Day 2008 

    A group of free software organizations and companies declared today the Document Freedom Day, a day dedicated to the promotion of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general. Data lock-in is a very serious issue for knowledge based economy and knowledge workers. All we do is collect data to elaborate information and create knowledge. When we store this knowledge on our computers we better make sure that we will be able to retrieve them any time with ease.

    Open standards are the only way to start securing the future of society. Unfortunately greed of companies promoting proprietary standards together with ill advised governments can put our future in joepardy.

    Today I join FSFE, Funambol and the rest of the crowd celebrating document freedom with a wider perspective than the just the ‘office documents’ we’re used to. When I think of a document on my computer I think of every file I store in there, every database, every map, every picture, every email message, every bookmark, every calendar entry. That’s my life, my work, my being today and my future, my knowledge, the product of my life. And that’s on my computer as well as on my cell phone and in web-based applications. I want to celebrate open standards, not just ODF, because only with open standard I can still dream of a different computer system where files don’t exist and all the knowledge I need comes to me at the right time, instead of me hunting it. Happy DFD2008.

     

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