Open Source software and systems continue to gain adherents worldwide, in addition to Japan recently deciding in favor of the Open Document Format (quite significant in and of itself), we now learn that Asia is the biggest consumer of Open Source software, but sadly
"Asia only represents 5 percent of the contributions in the open source community,"
I imagine IBM, Red Hat, Novell, as well as a few other Open Source support systems providers see the business opportunities that those figures represent.
The international wrangle to certify which will be the Open Document Format, one that is truly open--the ODF, or one that is proprietary (and coincidentally owned by Microsoft)--the OOXML is ongoing, with 'proponents' of the Microsoft 'Open' standard, pulling yet more funny business in the voting, this time in Spain, where said 'proponents' used a letter from the government in Spain out of context to try and foist its own standard on the committee voters, a move which forced the government to reply that its original letter
was intended as support for open formats generally and specifically for ODF, not OOXML
Who'da thunk they could sink so low? And why do they care?
This follows something along the same lines in Portugal, where ODF representatives from IBM and Sun were told by the voting group that there was no room in the meeting hall for them--a meeting that was chaired by the group representing Microsoft
The excuse for not letting them in, according to the notes, was that the room only could hold 20 people, and it was first come, first served. But when this was said, there were already more than 20 in the room. It eventually reached 25, so it seems clear there was room for Sun and IBM.
Apart from the fact that the standard that Microsoft is pushing is not Open, but also broken (the spreadsheet component horrendously so), it's not hard to imagine why they would want the entire world to depend on their standard, broken or not. A proprietary 'Open' standard that they own and publish, and can change (or abandon) used by government agencies around the planet. What's not to like or trust? No danger to historical records, national security documents, or anything like that. They're just trying to extend embrace and extinguish a friendly helping hand to the world. I trust them. You should, too.
The spreadsheet format is dangerously flawed:
It has incorrect formulas that, if implemented according to this standard, will bring important health, safety and environmental concerns, aside from the obvious financial risks of a spreadsheet that calculates incorrect results.
Not only is it flawed, but unintelligible to any but those who engineered it (worldwide tech support for an Open standard=monetizing):
OOXML has been criticised in the past as encumbered with Microsoft intellectual property and as too complex to be effectively implemented by anybody but Microsoft - the specification is 6,000 pages long, with 324 pages devoted to spreadsheet formulas and functions alone.
Seriously flawed, proprietary, full of Microsoft 'intellectual property', dangerous, and bloated--that all sounds so familiar. Oh, yeah. Now I remember. Best just accept their standard and move on. And don't forget, they have the 'most secure' system coming out in a couple of years (to replace Vista)--Microsoft '7'. I kid you not.
Just going to post this before the buzzer goes off, so I can keep my streak alive; will update with links momentarily, and a bit more on the absolute perfect desktop OS out of the box (this time really!). Have to run out for a few, so puh-leeze!!! keep it civil.
Feel free to use this space as a help desk if you are having any tech-related troubles as well.