Freitag Januar 06, 2006
I wonder when I will have to stop blogging ...
Did you read this ("It's All About Google Results: German Blogger Asked to Remove Mention Of Organization")???
I wonder when I will have to stop blogging considering that my blog shows up as the first item when you search for the name "Tenhumberg". I overtook a carpentry, and what might be worse, a German state politician.
( Jan 06 2006, 06:49:29 PM CET )
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About fairness in business, sports and life
I just read this:
"Since Microsoft isn't likely to directly support ODF, despite my strong suggestion that it should, implementing ODF would immediately do more to limit document access than to improve it.
If your goal is document access, selecting a format that Microsoft chooses not to support won't accomplish your goal."
I found the statement in this article which suggests that Peter Quinn was ignorant in his behavior. I personally don't know Peter Quinn, and I don't say the following to support him or his pro-OpenDocument recommendations, but how ignorant is the statement I quoted above?
Since in some of my previous blog entries I talked about ballroom dancing, I will try to put the statement into different context. Imagine a sports like figure skating where people have to have some defined figures in the routine in order to have a chance to win. In addition, people show stuff that works very well for them body shape, power and stamina wise.
I'm not a figure skating expert, but I guess the "mandatory" figures have changed over time. What if all the figures of the current world championship would be specified as the mandatory set of figures?
Sure, the figures would be well documented, but only one skater or only one couple would have the best chances to actually successfully perform those figures. It would be the one skater or couple that adopted them, because the figures fit well to their bodies and their style.
Would you consider that to be fair, and good? I don't!
The same with my sport, ballroom dancing. I really like Domenico Soale and Gioia Cerasoli's dancing style and their figures, but it would be terrible if their style would be declared the standard that everybody else has to meet.
First, all other couples would have a hard time dancing the figures as well as Soale and Cerasoli. Thus, the same couple would win, even at competitions where they actually dance worse than the others. Second, everything would look the same and innovation would disappear. Who want's that?
Back to OpenDocument! Yes, David Coursey is absolutely right that most people (still!) use Microsoft software and that these people are afraid of losing compatibility, but I'm convinced that most Microsoft Office users are "prisoners", i.e. people who have no choice but sticking with the vendor and the software they have.
For sure, many of these prisoners are very happy prisoners. Hey, if I was in a prison where French food was served, "rooms" had queen size beds plus a personal hot tub, and the prison had it's own beach, dance club, etc., I might actually like to be a prisoner.
But, what if that prison suddenly served bad food and I had to sleep on the floor?
I'd probably love to be a free man again as soon as possible, but I'd be stuck, could not go anywhere else, had no choice!
Proprietary technology that is not based on open standards is fine as long as the vendor provides the best value (value, you care about!) for the price. However, everybody who does not get the best value for the price or has at least doubt that the current proprietary vendor will be the best choice for allways and forever, should start supporting open standards sooner rather than later.
BTW, David Coursey implicitly also talks quite a bit about majorities. Majorities are important, but one also has to keep in mind the people who are not part of the majority, e.g. people who can either choose to buy food and education for their children or to spend the money on expensive software. Goverments have to keep an eye on this.
You also might want to read this and this.
( Jan 06 2006, 01:34:59 PM CET )
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Alternatives to Microsoft on the rise
"Mozilla Firefox championed the open source browser concept and is the primary challenger to IE's dominance. Firefox ended 2004 with 4.64% market share and although it started 2005 on fire, it cooled off during the summer months. Toward the end of the year, after releasing Firefox 1.5, it regained its momentum and closed the year at an impressive 9.57%.
Apple's Safari browser enjoyed a highly successful 2005 as the only browser to gain market share each and every month of the year. Safari ended 2004 in fourth place with 1.56% market share. Safari gained steadily to end 2005, and leaped past Netscape to grab the third leading browser spot at 3.07% market share."
Found here.
( Jan 06 2006, 12:21:14 PM CET )
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