Re: [tdf-discuss] Do not support writing to OOXML format

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Gordon Burgess-Parker
<gbplinux@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 30/12/10 17:27, Larry Gusaas wrote:
> > I will not support or use LibreOffice
> >  until it stops helping spread OOXML by enabling writing in this file
> > format. There is absolutely no need to write in this proprietary format. To
> > do so is contrary to the principle of using ODF and open source formats.
> >
> > See the following:
> >
> > http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2493&p=169740#p169507
> > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20101219121621828
> >
> > Unless this changes I will strongly advocate in the support groups I
> > participate the people stay with OpenOffice.org and not switch to
> > LibreOffice.
> OOXML will spread anyway because MS Office 2007 and 2010 use this format by
> default. Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid....

MS may create documents in OOXML by default. LibO can read them too.

Larry Gusaas' original point was to avoid helping MS with this
anti-open scheme. LibO should not help MS "...spread OOXML by enabling
writing in this file format..." In other words, make it so that LibO
can _read_ OOXML documents, but not _write/save as_ this format.
Enable LibO to _write_ in MS' proprietary .doc format, but not their
fake "open" format. It is not open. The intent of this fake file
format is to damage open software applications.

It is similar to what they did with web standards, their own special
Java, their own special C++. MS bribed their way into getting OOXML
accepted as an ISO open standard. Truly open applications shouldn't go
along with this scam. MS has suffered very little for their bad
behavior.

Even MS Office users (prior to 2007) have had trouble with this docx fraud.

Read the links in Larry Gusaas' original message in this thread. This
is what the open community is up against. We don't have to go along
with it.

By the way, there is nothing inherently wrong with what MS is doing
here. The U.S. system rewards corporations that flirt with the
boundaries of legality. The Standards Committee went along with this,
and the U.S. hapless regulatory system can't/won't come to the rescue.
It is up to the open community to deal with it. Don't make it possible
for an open application to write in a file format that seeks to damage
it.

Carl Symons

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