12.27.06
Posted in Boycott Novell, Deals, Fork, Formats, Free/Libre Software, FUD, GNU/Linux, GPL, IBM, Intellectual Monopoly, Interoperability, LGPL, Microsoft, NetWare, Novell, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, OpenSUSE, Patent Covenant, Patents, Red Hat, Servers, VBA, Virtualisation, Windows at 5:26 pm by Shane Coyle
Here, finally, is the transcript of Stafford Masie’s presentation at the CITI forum, as posted on tectonic.co.za. I only transcribe as well as I hear, so there may be small errors, but I am confident this is ‘very’ accurate. Please point out any errors or questions and I will investigate.
Related Posts: Stafford Masie’s Q&A at CITI Forum Transcript
Stafford Masie:
This whole Novell thing, the whole Microsoft thing, is an interesting thing. so, let me just start off by saying… thanks for making the time, thanks for making the time to see me. Pete was supposed to be up here this morning, and I decided to come,…
Really what I want the premise of the discussion to be is really a discussion about, I think the big thing thats gonna come up here as I go through all the…the material that I want to present initially is the patent stuff, y’know software patents and what they mean, etc I think professor Keats and I have gone back and forth online enough now.
We… we… we definitely like the fact that we have an open source community… we’re learning more and more as a proprietary vendor, traditional proprietary vendor, to participate in this community. and there are certain things that we do and there are certain things that we may not do that are good or that are bad, and y’know, really, this is what we want to do, this is what we want to do, is stir debate.
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12.17.06
Posted in Deals, Fork, Formats, Intellectual Monopoly, Interoperability, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, Patent Covenant, Standard, VBA at 9:30 pm by Shane Coyle
Stafford Masie, Novell South Africa country manager, speaking at the recent CITI forum in South Africa, was talking about document format compatibility between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, when he mentioned that Novell is expecting Microsoft to include native ODF support in their Office product:
So, just in terms of document format compatibility, we’re not forking it, the code’s up there… hopefully that code will be incorporated into the next derivative of, of the OpenOffice release, as part of the code… we’ve done quite a few things there, there’s the translator engine, the VB macro support, where you can import Excel macros into OpenOffice now and it will open up execute, etc there’s quite a few things that we’ve done there,
Also we’ve licensed in some fonts… and we worked with AGFA we put some truetype fonts in there, it’s similar to Microsoft’s true-type fonts in the OpenOffice product, and its for free, its there, we’ve published that up.
So, again, enterprise customers want this, they want to see the product more interoperable, they want to see openoffice having the capability to open up office 2007 documents and backwards.
Now, its good to do open xml because open xml is being supported back in Microsoft all the way to Office 95 or Office 97, one of those, I think its Office 97, they’re supporting open xml so, essentially, you’ll be able to open up all, up to office 97 documents that come from Microsoft with Office and in turn, we are also working with Microsoft to ensure that they put native ODF support within Microsoft Office.
Ok, that’s key, the fact that it will now open up our documents that we natively store in OpenOffice… inside there.
There was also a point when Masie acknowledged that there are many who have concerns about Microsoft’s Open XML format itself and their dubious Patent Covenant associated with the "standard", but he passed that off as a problem for ‘everyone’, but it would not be a problem for anyone who eschews Novell’s Danaergeschenk of Open XML.
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12.10.06
Posted in Apple, Formats, Interoperability, Microsoft, Novell, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, VBA, Windows at 9:19 pm by Shane Coyle
Apparently, not only are the Open XML converters for Mac MS Office users slow in coming, leading to at least a few months of interoperability pain for their paying customers, but Microsoft has announced they will also be pulling VBA support from future Mac MS Office.
To say that Excel VBA and Macro support is an important key to interoperating within a corporate (mostly Windows) environment is an understatement, it is the reason that many people buy Mac MS Office:
To me, while the automation features are nice to have, it’s the fact that macros are portable across platforms that has helped the Mac versions of Office succeed in the market. With today’s versions of Office for Windows and OS X, macros written on the Windows version will work on the Mac version, and vice versa. (There are some exceptions for very complex macros, but most macros work the same on both platforms.) In any sort of mixed-platform environment, this is a very important capability—calling it mission critical for many wouldn’t be an understatement.
The other day I had quipped that Mac MS Office users may have to rely on Novell OpenOffice.org for their Windows MS Office compatibility needs on an interim basis, until the document converters were completed. Obviously, that was a misstatement – Mac users may need to rely on Novell OpenOffice.org for their Windows interoperability permanently.
Why is Microsoft bending over backwards making interoperability overtures towards Novell and Linux while punishing Apple and Mac?
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12.05.06
Posted in Action, Deception, Formats, Intellectual Monopoly, Law, Microsoft, Novell, Office Suites, OpenDocument, VBA at 10:27 am by Shane Coyle
Anyone who is using or redistributing OpenOffice.org must pay attention, as it appears that Microsoft is preparing to defend its crown jewel Office, either by licensing or litigation.
Remember the Microsoft-Sun deal of a few years ago? Part of the deal was coverage for users of StarOffice, the commercial distribution of OpenOffice.org offered by Sun:
The agreement in question was signed in April of this year as part of Sun and Microsoft’s landmark multibillion dollar settlement. It was released as part of Sun’s annual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings Monday.
The April agreement says that Microsoft can seek damages from Open Office users or distributors for any copy of Open Office installed after April 1, 2004. However, users of Sun’s commercial distribution of Open Office, called StarOffice are protected from legal liabilities under the agreement, said Russ Castronovo, a spokesman for Sun.
As we all know, Novell’s "customers" now also enjoy protection from Microsoft litigation as well.
So, now you have your choice – accept Microsoft’s license terms, which both Sun and Novell have seen as necessary, or risk Microsoft’s wrath. And, having seen the lengths that they are willing to go to stem the adoption of ODF, I am not taking any chances.
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12.04.06
Posted in Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, OpenSUSE, VBA at 8:10 pm by Shane Coyle
Novell has released a new version of OpenOffice.org 2.0.2, replete with all kinds of fancy (and possibly patent-encumbered) “interoperability” features. Let’s count the number of times we see the words "Microsoft" or "Windows", shall we?
key features of OpenOffice.org 2.0.2
The Novell® Edition of OpenOffice.org contains enhancements that are not available in the standard edition. These include:
- Enhanced Support for Microsoft Office File Formats: OpenOffice.org supports import and export of Microsoft Office file formats, even taking advantage of compatible fonts to match document length. Transparent document sharing makes OpenOffice.org the best choice if you are deploying it in a mixed Linux/Windows environment.
- E-Mail as Microsoft Office Document: The standard edition of OpenOffice.org supports e-mailing of files as PDF files from within the OpenOffice.org application. With the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org, you can also e-mail any document as a Microsoft Office file. For example, you can e-mail a Writer file as a Microsoft Word file, so the file is automatically converted and attached to an e-mail in your default e-mail application.
- Excel VBA Macro Interoperability: The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org eases the migration of many macros from Microsoft Excel. Although not all macros can be successfully migrated, this interoperability offers more than the standard edition, which does not support migration of macros.
- Enhanced Fonts: For the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org, Novell licensed fonts from AGFA that use the same or similar names as the fonts available in Microsoft Office. The fonts also look similar to those used by Microsoft and have identical metrics. This allows OpenOffice.org to match fonts when opening documents originally composed in Microsoft Office, and very closely match pagination and page formatting.
- ODMA Integration: The Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org for Windows includes initial release of ODMA integration such as GroupWise.
Okay, I didn’t really count, but there were a bunch weren’t there? Interestingly, this article notes that Novell is adding the support to its Linux version of Novell OpenOffice.org, but the download page only indicates Windows 2000/XP as the platform:
Novell has announced that they are adding support for the recently launched MS Office 2007 document format to their version of the OpenOffice productivity suite for the Linux operating system.
Novell has provided a modified version of OpenOffice.org 2.02 as a free download for their registered users, which is compatible with Office 2007 documents.
Did you catch that last part about “free download for their registered users”? What do you want to bet that is so they have a counter for their royalty payment to Microsoft for their “Interoperability IP”? Why else restrict the downloading of an "Open-Source" product, or can Novell customers not redistribute the special Novell Edition now? Is the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org under any license other than LGPL?
I have lots of questions about this announcement that I will be further researching, Pamela Jones of Groklaw is also on the case, so be sure to check out what she has come up with:
Well, if there are any Novell supporters left, here’s something else to put in your pipe and smoke it. Novell is forking OpenOffice.org.
There will be a Novell edition of OpenOffice.org and it will support Microsoft OpenXML. (The default will be ODF, they claim, but note that the subheading mentions OpenXML instead.) I am guessing this will be the only OpenOffice.org covered by the “patent agreement” with Microsoft. You think?
Yes, unfortunately I do.
UPDATE: Miguel De Icaza says Novell OpenOffice is not a fork, but a patched version of OpenOffice.org. I did get a kick out of this though:
Btw, I believe the translator that people are discussing is built with C# and XSLT and is available here. I wonder some of the posters on the Groklaw thread are going to have a stroke over the fact that the software is hosted at source forge.
The document converter they are working on is in C#? So, I need to use Mono to use their converter for MS OpenXML? How many lawsuits must I expose myself to just to get at my own information in those documents?
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