>On 5/25/02 @ 11:48 PM, richard_at_cyberphotographer.com wrote:
>
>>if I want to share with others, PowerPoint is the
>>standard. Same goes for Word and Excel.
>
>Standards are published and open. In contrast, .doc, .xls and .ppt
>are not even conventions. Their exact specs are shrouded in secrecy,
>change often, and appear to be designed not to interoperate wherever
>possible. They often contain, for no known reason, the end user's
>unique ethernet device number which effectively offers a simple means
>of spying, and they are entirely controlled by one company for its
>own ends. That company has been shown to abuse consumers. Yet, even a
>committee can design a more virus-proof document format (e.g.
>w3c.org). IMO the US Court should force Microsoft to publish its
>existing document specifications and require it to use xml as the
>basis for any 'innovative' new formats.
No disagreement with your standards points.
And yes, MSFT has locked in their monopoly via their proprietary file
formats.
To add clarification to my comments. What I was trying to say, is that
in today's world, when you want to share documents with other
organizations, you have to use something that they use.
Now if the receiver must be able to read and print documents, then Adobe
Acrobat is a wonderful way to send documents electronically.
However, it seems that in the business/government arena, if you want to
send a presentation, spreadsheet or document to another organization
where they can open and edit it, then the defacto standard has become
MSFT Office products, whether one likes it or not.
In fact, what I find to be one of the most key points in PC folks
switching over to the Mac is whether or not they can use MSFT Office
products. For most, this is PP, Excel and Word. Occasionally, some will
need Access compatibility as well.
Anyhow, getting back to your standards discussion, MSFT is not the only
one who does this. Many other companies do as well. It would be nice
someday if all companies has to use open standards for document file
formats.
Who knows, maybe Open Doc could be come a reality. Open Doc, in concept
and principle, was really cool...
Sushi
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