[plug] looks like Sun's serious about this one!

[Leon Brooks]

>From the article:

> OpenOffice.org will host [GPL] StarOffice source code.
> OpenOffice.Org will also specify XML file formats for documents;
> specify language-independent APIs; and provide Microsoft Office
> file filters, so developers can more easily modify existing
> programs and customize specific applications to fit their needs.

I think Sun's CEO has finally decided that Open Source dogma works, at
least in part, and has decided to do two things with it:

1. Break MS-Office's stranglehold. The _only_ way to break MS-Office
domination is to move the _public_ starting blocks in the office race
around the track to somewhere near Microsoft's current position. The
community's "mongolian horde" progamming technology will take it from
there. (How about integrating Visual Python components into the suite
for out-Officing Microsoft?)

2. Get real (not ersatz) brownie points for Sun, which will help it to
surf out the coming melee in office applications.

IMHO, the proper componentising and Open Sourcing of a suite as complex
and complete as SO will have as much of an impact as if IBM had Open
Sourced OS/2 about five years ago.

The componentisation that they mention is important. Mozilla (or even
Lynx, for that matter) may soon view Word documents. A headless StarCalc
might make the contents of an Excel sheet available as Zope objects,
from whence they grace a standards-compliant browser instead of a
proprietary hydra.

-- 
Linux will not get in the door by simply mentioning it... it must win
by proving itself superior. We have no marketing department, our sales
department is an FTP server in North Carolina and our programming
department spans 7 continents. Am I getting through? -- Signal11 (/.)