Of course, M$ embraced Java the same way. Now that standard is screwed up too! ;-) Be careful what you wish for! -----Original Message----- From: pwa@chmls06.mediaone.net [mailto:pwa@chmls06.mediaone.net]On Behalf Of Paul Abrahams Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 2:33 PM To: SuSE listserve Subject: [SLE] MS Word, Federal standards, and Linux I'm currently dealing with the following problem: I have a document I'm going to be creating that I have to distribute to a number of people, most of whom aren't particularly technically oriented and (I have to assume) aren't using Linux and aren't going to. I hate to resort to using an MS Word file, but I really see no practical alternative. (No, I'm not going to go down in flames as a Linux evangelist in this context.) But the pickle I'm in made me think of a neat way to use Microsoft's own "embrace and extend" strategy against it. Suppose the MS Word format were to be adopted as a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard). That would imply, among other things, that (a) the format was completely documented and available for use by anyone, and (b) that Microsoft could no longer change it unilaterally. If it's a de facto standard, then let's make it a de jure standard! That, of course, would be great for Linux. It would mean that Star Office, Koffice, and any other contenders could, with confidence, process the documents that the rest of the world is using, and it would break the MS monopoly on Word processors. I wonder what would be necessary to bring this about. Paul PS -- Pardon if this is a duplicate. Paul -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the archives at http://lists.suse.com

On Fri, 15 Jun 2001, Paul Abrahams wrote:

But the pickle I'm in made me think of a neat way to use Microsoft's own "embrace and extend" strategy against it. Suppose the MS Word format were to be adopted as a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard). That would imply, among other things, that (a) the format was completely documented and available for use by anyone, and (b) that Microsoft could no longer change it unilaterally. If it's a de facto standard, then let's make it a de jure standard!

That, of course, would be great for Linux. It would mean that Star Office, Koffice, and any other contenders could, with confidence, process the documents that the rest of the world is using, and it would break the MS monopoly on Word processors.

I don't think so. If it were adopted as a standard, then all the 'other' word processors would adopt it as their native format. I wouldn't like to see that happen, because it's such an awful format! It allows embedded macros that 'auto-execute on open', it stores history, and it seems to result in file sizes that are 10-15 times the basic ascii text equivalent. Surely if we're going to have a standard, let's have one that's safe, easy to parse, and efficient! -- Rick Green "I have the heart of a little child, and the brain of a genius. ... and I keep them in a jar under my bed"