The Office Open XML (OOXML) document format exists purely because governments demanded it, according to Microsoft, which is hoping the format will become an international standard by the end of this month.
The British Standards Institution has sent its response to the International Organization for Standardization on the subject of whether Microsoft Office Open XML should be certified with the ISO, but has refused to say whether it voted "yes", "no", or "abstain".
The British Standards Institution has been taken to court by a group of Unix users in an attempt to get the standards body to recant its approval of Microsoft's Office Open XML document format.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts has proposed a plan to phase out office productivity applications from Microsoft and other providers in favour of those based on "open" standards, including the recently approved OpenDocument standard.
Microsoft has failed in its initial effort to fast-track the Office Open XML (OOXML) document file format as an international standard but it will have another chance in early 2008.
The eyes of the world were on Australia this week as the APEC summit got underway in Sydney, and what they've seen is a city being held under virtual martial law major roads blocked off, police cars outnumbering taxis and snipers openly hanging out on roof tops.
Office 2007 continues to be the focus of discussion here at Big Deal, but the most recent crop of reactions to my postings have shifted from the possible nuisance value of interface changes to the potential upside for OpenOffice, the open-source rival to the desktop suite crown.
Telstra changed so much internally under Sol Trujillo's watch that it seems likely the company's next CEO will be drawn from a small pool of executives who are already well practised in the Way of Sol.
If you're considering an upgrade to Entourage 2008, think again -- for some reason, Microsoft hasn't bothered to add some vital functions that are critical to making Apple Mac systems welcome on any Exchange network.
In a world where much is out of our control, the Web allows us to prepare ourselves. But are we becoming a society of lurkers?
Linux users can now run Office XP on Linux following the release of a commercial application that allows the package to run on the open source operating system.
As Microsoft unveils the next version of its flagship Office suite, we ask: is it revolution or evolution?
Michael Meeks is a distinguished engineer at Novell. But his current project may be his toughest yet. He is in charge of tackling interoperability between Novell's OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Microsoft Office. And as with anything relating to Microsoft, this involves more than just technology.
Microsoft says beta testing for Office 12 begins in November. Also, the company gets 120,000 requests a month from people who want to save their Office documents in PDF format, making it one of the most requested features.
The lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments, says former Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn.
Redmond-based group project manager of Microsoft Office, Gray Knowlton, told ZDNet Australia that OOXML provides higher levels of security. "One of the benefits we have with the OpenOffice XML formats is that we know when we read and write and document because we have an XML based representation of what's in that content -- we know what should and should not be there," he said.
OpenOffice.org 2.0, the freeware version of Sun's StarOffice 8, is a great deal for small-business users who don't mind browsing online forums for technical support. But enterprises are better served by StarOffice 8.
Fed up with paying through the nose for programs? Need to repopulate a system with applications following a disaster? You need our guide to free and low-cost software.
Microsoft says it's opening its Office desktop software by adding support for XML--a move that should help companies free up access to shared information. But there's a catch: It has yet to disclose the underlying XML dialect.
OpenOffice.org 2.4.0 is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft's Office application suite. It is fantastic if you need basic office applications such as a word processor or spreadsheet at no cost. However, large organisations and power users may be disappointed by its lack of features and support.
While the interface of IBM's free office suite is sexy, its hunger for system resources and lack of features mean that OpenOffice.org 3 is still the best free office suite. Also, watch out for Symphony's lack of OOXML support.
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