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 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.
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 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".
As Australia and various other nations prepare to vote on whether Microsoft's Open Office XML becomes an ISO standard, the Redmond giant is attempting to downplay fears that OOXML adopters will be hooked into the company's technology.
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.
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.
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.
Sun Microsystems has released the first beta of OpenOffice, the open-source sibling of its StarOffice package, for Mac OS X computers.
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.
IT remains a lively, exciting and suprising place. That makes predictions particularly foolish, but here are some picks for the winners and losers of the next twelve months.
Organisations considering a change of productivity suites may do well to follow the example of Queensland University of Technology, which has taken a cautious approach to Microsoft Office 2007 and instead focused on sprucing up its back-end messaging environment.
The popularity of OpenOffice, the open source productivity suite, will be key to the financial success of Novell, said company president and CEO, Ron Hovsepian, who hopes to be a 'custodian' between the open source community and the commercial world. Also: Watch the videos.
The popularity of OpenOffice, the open source productivity suite, will be key to the financial success of Novell, said company president and CEO, Ron Hovsepian, who hopes to be a 'custodian' between the open source community and the commercial world. Also: Watch the videos.
The popularity of OpenOffice, the open source productivity suite, will be key to the financial success of Novell, said company president and CEO, Ron Hovsepian, who hopes to be a 'custodian' between the open source community and the commercial world. Also: Watch the videos.
The popularity of OpenOffice, the open source productivity suite, will be key to the financial success of Novell, said company president and CEO, Ron Hovsepian, who hopes to be a 'custodian' between the open source community and the commercial world. Also: Watch the videos.
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.
Red Hat 9.0 is a boon for those who already use it, but it's too expensive to warrant a switch from Windows. Try SuSE (or the free Red Hat) for a better mix of price and features.
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.
Sun Microsystems has released the first beta of OpenOffice, the open-source sibling of its StarOffice package, for Mac OS X computers.
Microsoft's shared source chief Jason Matusow on how the programme will spread beyond platforms and whether Office source code will be released. The question is, does anybody want it?
History of British PCs
The cash-strapped UK National Museum of Computing is home to an exhibition of the evolution of British PCs.… Watch it now
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