ODF News: ODF 1.2, European Support for ODF, LibreOffice and More
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-10 08:54:28 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-10 08:56:13 UTC
Standard
Last Wednesday, March 26th, on Document Freedom Day, OASIS submitted Open Document Format 1.2 standard to the ISO/IEC JTC1 Secretariat for transposition to an International Standard under the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) procedure.
Plug.and.socket 142One of the two articles of faith that Eric Kriss and Peter Quinn embraced in drafting their evolving Enterprise Technical Reference Model (ETRM) was this: products built to “open standards” are more desirable than those that aren’t. Superficially, the concept made perfect sense – only buy products that you can mix and match. That way, you can take advantage of both price competition as well as a wide selection of alternative products from multiple vendors, each with its own value-adding features. And if things don’t work out, well, you’re not locked in, and can swap out the loser and shop for a winner.
Europe
Last week Monday, five European public administrations published a new call for tender, to further improve interoperability between free and open source office suites and the ubiquitous proprietary alternative. This is the second time that the German cities of Munich, Leipzig and Jena, the Swiss Federal Court and the Swiss Federal IT Steering Unit have issued such a call. ICT specialists have until 30 April to submit proposals.
The office suites' interoperability project is again managed by the OSB Alliance, a trade group representing open source service providers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
According the alliance's press release, one of the main features to be developed concerns change tracking between open source and proprietary office suites. The public administrations issuing the call want to improve the specification of change tracking, and make this part of the Open Document Format ISO standard.
Such a policy would help the South Tyrol government in its new IT approach, increasing its use of ICT solutions based on free and open source, the governor says.
South Tyrol's new policy was announced on 11 March. Responding to emailed questions, Governor Kompatscher said that the region is in favour of using free and open source solutions not only for new IT solutions, but also when upgrading existing IT components. "We've started to review our license costs. If there are free and open source alternatives, and where the costs and risks of changing are justified, we will switch to these."
LibreOffice
Misc.
The Document Foundation (TDF) has announced the Document Liberation Project, in an effort to empower individuals, organizations, and governments to recover their data from proprietary formats and offer a mechanism to transition that data into open file formats.
There was a time when office compatibility was a bit of a problem on Linux, but with the latest office suites out there available for Linux, this is not an issue anymore. The applications here mimic MS Excel’s behavior, so switching to one of them should be pretty straightforward. Exporting and importing to and from MS Excel format works as well, and there aren’t many compatibility issues (however, the native format these programs use is the OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) format.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft Layoffs and Closures Now Reported in Africa
- Microsoft Uninstalls Nigeria as it closes African Development Centre (ADC) in Lagos
- Microsoft OSI Uses Its Money to Hire PR Agencies That Spy and Spread Mindless Openwashing of GPL-Violating Microsoft Ploy
- `We're under attack. But the attackers smile at us and hire PR firms to spy, mislead etc.
- In Nigeria, Africa's (by Far) Largest Population, Microsoft Bing is the 0%
- To Microsoft, Africa is just "someplace" to get intensive, hard-working human 'resources' (tech labour) at 2 dollars 'apiece' as in per person per hour
-
- Links 10/05/2024: Burner Phones in 6-Eyes Government, “Hatred and Demonization” on the Rise
- Links for the day
- [Video] Richard Stallman, "I Saw You Playing Your Recorder in Paris" (Due to Proprietary Software Only)
- Corporate autocrats do not want counterparts or alternatives to even exist
- Five Years After the Extensive Campaign of Defamation Against Richard Stallman He's Still Giving Public Talks
- "Richard Stallman will give a talk, in French, Free Software and Freedom in a Digital Society at Centrale Supelec in Saclay, on May 15."
- Microsoft Is Rebranding Its 'Chatbot' Search for the Third Time Because It Fails to Gain Adoption
- it always means that something has failed - not that they'll openly admit it
- Richard Stallman Gives a Talk in Paris Next Week (in French) and It's About Freedom
- another talk, which he has only just announced
- Pace Up, Distractions Down
- We've made our curation process faster and more efficient
- In Algeria, GNU/Linux Estimated to Have Grown Tenfold in a Decade
- a sharp rise in GNU/Linux usage
- [Meme] Red Hat Diversity
- Red Hat: don't mention Haghighi
- Our Sister Site Turns 20 in Exactly One Month
- twentieth anniversary of the site
- Corporate Media Focuses on Who's Suing Red Hat, Not What It's Sued For
- The unfortunate thing is, anybody who has an opinion on this lawsuit will inevitably be framed as "pro-Trump" or "anti-Trump"
- Links 10/05/2024: Many More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 09, 2024
- IRC logs for Thursday, May 09, 2024
- Gemini Links 10/05/2024: geminispace.info to Shut Down in 3 Weeks
- Links for the day
- Links 09/05/2024: Journalists in Detention, China Banning Songs or Anthems
- Links for the day
- Support for harassment and abuse victims
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 09/05/2024: Being Sick Enough and End of “World of Ends“
- Links for the day
- Links 09/05/2024: 'Hey Hi' (AI) Bubble Implodes Some More, Microsoft Layoffs So Widespread It's Hard to Keep Track
- Links for the day
- Speaking of Enshittification and Freedom, We've Still Not Begun Tackling the UEFI 'Secure' Boot Mess (Preventing GNU/Linux From Even Booting!)
- Microsoft continues to fly under the radar and commit competition crimes with impunity
- Microsoft Has Just Confirmed Mass Layoffs in Nigeria, It Now Adds Insult to Injury With Price Hikes for Locals
- It's not like Microsoft paid them good salaries
- Software Enshittification or Freedom? It's not a hard choice!
- Reprinted from Alexandre Oliva
- Links 09/05/2024: More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way
- Links for the day
- Amid Microsoft Layoffs in Nigeria GNU/Linux Climbs Above 6% Market Share (Not Including ChromeOS)
- Hundreds are being laid off by Microsoft in Nigeria, based on yesterday's reports
- [Meme] Blame the Robots or the 'Hey Hi' (AI), It Always Works in Today's Media
- Companies do not have financial troubles! They have "efficiencies"...
- News Reports Say Many More Microsoft Layoffs on the Way, Rumours Say Red Hat Also Imminently a Target
- Microsoft is slipping out of control
- Links 09/05/2024: Diplomacy Efforts With China, AstraZeneca Stops Experimenting With COVID-19 Vaccines
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 08, 2024
- IRC logs for Wednesday, May 08, 2024
- Gemini Links 09/05/2024: Registered Computer Professionals and TLS (The Long Slog)
- Links for the day
- Links 08/05/2024: Android Malware and "AI" Hype
- Links for the day
- [Meme] Technical Committee With People Who Are Not Technical
- the computing/computer industry being occupied by people who lack suitable background
- The Demise of Computer Science Education
- Education is essential for the future; without it, whole nations will perish
- [Video] Prisons for the Minds and for Tech Workers
- Today's video talks about what happens to workforces (across disciplines) in recent years
- [Meme] Struggling to Leave Its Nazi Past Behind
- digital arson
- Microsoft Declines to Talk About How Many People It Has Just Laid Off
- Hours ago in IGN: "Microsoft did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable. IGN has asked Bethesda for comment. Microsoft declined to expand further when contacted by IGN."
- Microsoft Windows in South America: From 99% to 87%
- the latest from statCounter
- It's Rather Obvious Why They Try to Silence Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, and Daniel Pocock
- Some of them already sent physically menacing messages to Daniel Pocock
- IRC Network of Techrights Turns 3 (or 16 if We Count the Freenode Days)
- In a few months IRC turns 36
- Sedating Oneself (and Shareholders) With Fuzzy Buzzwords and Pointless Acquisitions
- IBM trying to buy time
- Clickfraud Spamnil Ran Out of Clickfraud Budget, Apparently
- sooner or later charlatans and frauds run out of steam
- Techrights Gets Under the Skin of Bad, Corrupt, Immoral People (That's a Good Thing)
- Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy and free societies
- Companies Do Not Shut Down Offices and Lay Off Staff en Masse (Morale and Reputation Issue) Unless They're in Deep Financial Trouble
- Microsoft has been faking its financial performance for years
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 07, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, May 07, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- [Video] Leaving Microsoft Behind for the Sake of National Security
- Threats to "National Security" aren't some users with an Android phone but Microsoft at the root of things
- GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Now at 6% in France, According to statCounter
- numbers from statCounter