once again the voice of reason...
Jan. 30th, 2005 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearGeek content follows, from a slashdot discussion on MS opening up their XML formats for the new Office suite, some are suggesting that the limitation opensource products will hit will be that the features in the product that the file is referencing might still be patented, and thus a blockade to their use in free (beer/speech) software.
actually, i'm thinking the other way around -- is it OpenOffice's (or StarOffice's or WorkPerfect's) job to duplicate every single feature in MS Office?
If the XML being imported has a section that is based on a feature that OpenOffice has not implemented, should OpenOffice therefore be modified to duplicate MS Office on that one feature when no OpenOfficer user has really requested it so far or it requires a major refactoring effort to fit it in?
I don't think so. The 80-20 rule still applies, and anybody using an MS Office feature that relatively obscure really has no interest in exchanging their stuff with an OpenOffice user. The two aren't meant to be 100% clones of each other; no two products should.
In fact, if OpenOffice WAS a 100% feature-compatible version of Word, I likely wouldn't use it because Word has way too much crap I don't need, don't want, and couldn't figure out how to use even if i did.
actually, i'm thinking the other way around -- is it OpenOffice's (or StarOffice's or WorkPerfect's) job to duplicate every single feature in MS Office?
If the XML being imported has a section that is based on a feature that OpenOffice has not implemented, should OpenOffice therefore be modified to duplicate MS Office on that one feature when no OpenOfficer user has really requested it so far or it requires a major refactoring effort to fit it in?
I don't think so. The 80-20 rule still applies, and anybody using an MS Office feature that relatively obscure really has no interest in exchanging their stuff with an OpenOffice user. The two aren't meant to be 100% clones of each other; no two products should.
In fact, if OpenOffice WAS a 100% feature-compatible version of Word, I likely wouldn't use it because Word has way too much crap I don't need, don't want, and couldn't figure out how to use even if i did.
