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.
Google has joined a group that is promoting an OpenDocument Format standard that allows people to open documents regardless of the application they were created in.
IBM and Sun Microsystems are considering forming a foundation to increase adoption of the OpenDocument format, which is emerging as a threat to Microsoft's dominant Office suite of software.
The data format standard has the potential to transform the world just as the Web did, according to a senior Sun executive.
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.
Melbourne-based Web start-up 2Vouch yesterday launched the first public beta of what it dubs its "social recruiting platform".
Labor's policy of socialised broadband has certainly proved much harder than the party believed it would be back when it was in Opposition, but it is Telstra that stands to lose the most from the NBN - and that applies whether it loses the NBN contract or wins it.
We've all experienced that irritating feeling upon walking into a nearly empty restaurant, only to see little 'reserved' signs on the empty tables, and to be told by the matre d' that no tables are available even as other people enter and are escorted to their tables.
Celebrity comes with its perks free alcohol, better-looking partners, lots of holiday time and disadvantages constant media intrusions, being forced to appear in films with Eddie Murphy for the long-term good of your career, and having to do mindless radio interviews with angry men who've been awake since 4am.
For no particular reason that I can discern, a 1979 Kenny Rogers song popped into my head as I was considering the ever more complex morass that is the national broadband network tender which Senator Stephen Conroy defended in his CeBIT keynote speech.
Andrew Lippman thinks communities will be key to the future of communications tech.
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.
So you've done the math and decided there may be a good business case for Linux after all. Just make sure you don't dive into the world of open source without fastening the rope securely to the bridge.
Linux vendors Debian, Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrakesoft have attacked a recent Forrester report that compared Microsoft's security with that of Linux.
The open source debate rages on with Novell and Microsoft taking center stage with new announcements. Builder AU examines what each side has to say and what it means to be truly open source.
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.
Mandrake Linux 9.1 is Linux all grown-up, with easy installation, tons of bundled apps, and pretty fonts, too.
If you're ready to let go of old habits from previous versions of Word and want to make sleeker-looking documents, Microsoft Word 2007 is worth the upgrade. However, less-expensive alternatives handle its core features without the clutter.
If you need to make sleeker-looking documents and presentations, Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is a worthy upgrade. But stick to your current software if you don't feel that it lacks anything.
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
In this exclusive video interview, Optus chief information officer Lawrie Turner speaks to ZDNet.com.au about being the IT head for Australia's number two telco.
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