Comments on: Microsoft Office to Support ODF: The Q&A http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/ because technology is just another ecosystem Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:05:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Jason Matusow http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2132 Jason Matusow Fri, 07 Jul 2006 05:17:37 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2132 Good discussion, good question from Jamie Cardoso about the long-term implications. The other part of the announcement today was about the addition of an interoperability add-in so that users can easily get PDF, XPS, and ODF functionality. Granted this is currently slated for 2007 only, but the point is to have that feature built into the product by MS. As we deal with long-term issues around patches and upgrades, that element of the file menu will be treated as part of the product. I am not part of the Office team, but am part of the core team working on this project. I will make sure to raise the issue internally so that we are able to address it effectively for customers. Thanks for the comment. Jason Good discussion, good question from Jamie Cardoso about the long-term implications. The other part of the announcement today was about the addition of an interoperability add-in so that users can easily get PDF, XPS, and ODF functionality. Granted this is currently slated for 2007 only, but the point is to have that feature built into the product by MS. As we deal with long-term issues around patches and upgrades, that element of the file menu will be treated as part of the product.

I am not part of the Office team, but am part of the core team working on this project. I will make sure to raise the issue internally so that we are able to address it effectively for customers.

Thanks for the comment.

Jason

]]> By: Mike Dolan http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2131 Mike Dolan Thu, 06 Jul 2006 21:58:36 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2131 Seems to 1) legitimize ODF albeit for a segment and 2) encourage more enterprise customers to watch all the fun play out. I would imagine most large MSFT customers are watching this - if you're a CIO paying MSFT $50M a year in Office license fees... you're watching this. And while that CIO hasn't made any moves yet, you can bet they will plan a move. Maybe he'll never "switch" but the option to switch is so valuable in negotiations... Another big implication... anyone who does business with these agencies will have to use ODF. My bet is the basic Word plug-in comes soon within a year... and the spreadsheet/presentation capabilities lag... a .. long... long ... time. Seems to 1) legitimize ODF albeit for a segment and 2) encourage more enterprise customers to watch all the fun play out.

I would imagine most large MSFT customers are watching this - if you’re a CIO paying MSFT $50M a year in Office license fees… you’re watching this. And while that CIO hasn’t made any moves yet, you can bet they will plan a move. Maybe he’ll never “switch” but the option to switch is so valuable in negotiations…

Another big implication… anyone who does business with these agencies will have to use ODF.

My bet is the basic Word plug-in comes soon within a year… and the spreadsheet/presentation capabilities lag… a .. long… long … time.

]]> By: Eduardo http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2130 Eduardo Thu, 06 Jul 2006 20:55:12 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2130 Great post, but I disagree that it won't help Office's competitors. Remember, most people in organizations use only the simpler functions of Office, ones that OpenOffice duplicates, and at much lower cost. With the ODF converter an organization can move many of its users to OO or some other office suite, and keep only those who really need it on Office. That is the bottem-line reason Microsoft has been resisting this move. Great post, but I disagree that it won’t help Office’s competitors. Remember, most people in organizations use only the simpler functions of Office, ones that OpenOffice duplicates, and at much lower cost. With the ODF converter an organization can move many of its users to OO or some other office suite, and keep only those who really need it on Office. That is the bottem-line reason Microsoft has been resisting this move.

]]> By: stephen o'grady http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2129 stephen o'grady Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:48:56 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2129 Jaime: great questions, and unfortunately i don't know. i'll see what i can do about getting answers to them. as far as being usable or not, i think the jury's still out on that one. that is, however, one of the nice things about it being open source and BSD licensed. also, it's not the only plugin under construction. Mark: yup, that is one of the limitations: no save/export functionality until the end of the year. i hadn't considered the MA deadline, but i'm glad you mention it. while i tend to believe it'll slip, as significant deadlines have a tendency to do, it's an interesting coincidence, is it not? Jaime: great questions, and unfortunately i don’t know. i’ll see what i can do about getting answers to them.

as far as being usable or not, i think the jury’s still out on that one. that is, however, one of the nice things about it being open source and BSD licensed.

also, it’s not the only plugin under construction.

Mark: yup, that is one of the limitations: no save/export functionality until the end of the year. i hadn’t considered the MA deadline, but i’m glad you mention it. while i tend to believe it’ll slip, as significant deadlines have a tendency to do, it’s an interesting coincidence, is it not?

]]> By: Mark http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2128 Mark Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:57:17 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2128 Conspiracy theories aside (for the moment), the fact remains that the current code does nothing of what they claim. It's an ODF to Word converter, not the other way around. http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=3809617 "With the first release (0.1 - prototype), you can only convert documents from ODF to OpenXML." According to the roadmap linked from the project's home page (ONLY AVAILABLE IN .DOC FORMAT, WTF?) they won't get around to actually exporting to ODF until at least October, with a final version not due until December 30th. Which is suspiciously close to the Massachusetts deadline, but never mind that. Conspiracy theories aside (for the moment), the fact remains that the current code does nothing of what they claim. It’s an ODF to Word converter, not the other way around.

http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=3809617

“With the first release (0.1 - prototype), you can only convert documents from ODF to OpenXML.”

According to the roadmap linked from the project’s home page (ONLY AVAILABLE IN .DOC FORMAT, WTF?) they won’t get around to actually exporting to ODF until at least October, with a final version not due until December 30th. Which is suspiciously close to the Massachusetts deadline, but never mind that.

]]> By: Jaime Cardoso http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2006/07/06/microsoft-office-to-support-odf-the-qa/#comment-2127 Jaime Cardoso Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:50:21 +0000 http://redmonk.com/sogrady/wp/?p=935#comment-2127 Stephen, you mentioned the MS Office support of ODF but leaning to support it's own internal format but, I see another probable problem. With this plugin, MS Office will support ODF and, therefore, will not be excluded of the public RFPs that demand ODF support but, will that plugin be able to be integrated in Software distribution platforms like the MS SMS server? Will the patches and upgrades of the MS Office platform respect and not break the mentioned plugin? I may be turning into the conspiration theorist here but, will the plugin really be an aceptable choice or will add so much work to the customer that will be unusable (a fact only to be discovered after the purchase is made). Conspiration or not, this is not unseen inside MS's products, just look at the pop3 and IMAP4 implementation in Exchange or the LDAP implementation on A.D. and you'll see there is a precedent here. Stephen, you mentioned the MS Office support of ODF but leaning to support it’s own internal format but, I see another probable problem.
With this plugin, MS Office will support ODF and, therefore, will not be excluded of the public RFPs that demand ODF support but, will that plugin be able to be integrated in Software distribution platforms like the MS SMS server? Will the patches and upgrades of the MS Office platform respect and not break the mentioned plugin?
I may be turning into the conspiration theorist here but, will the plugin really be an aceptable choice or will add so much work to the customer that will be unusable (a fact only to be discovered after the purchase is made).
Conspiration or not, this is not unseen inside MS’s products, just look at the pop3 and IMAP4 implementation in Exchange or the LDAP implementation on A.D. and you’ll see there is a precedent here.

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