French Government Recommends Standardizing on ODF

Juha-Matti Laurio writes "From the InfoWorld article: All French government publications should be made available in OpenDocument Format (ODF), according to a report commissioned by the French prime minister. The new report also suggests that France ask its European partners to do likewise when exchanging documents at a European level. It is recommended that the government will fund a research center dedicated to open-source software security as well, adds the article."

Re:How long before the Microsoft rebuttal report?

[bahbar]

That would be forgetting that the french state is a recognized monopoly in a lot of areas (in France), and that few French have an issue with it.

As for buying viewpoints in influencial circles, the french politics are far from the US lobbying model. Don't assume what works in the US works everywhere.
Is it going to spread throughout Europe ? I would hope so, but it is unlikely to be made a requirement.

Re:You can have any flavor you like, if it's vanil

[mwvdlee]

ODF is meant to be extensible.

It should be no problem for innovating companies to add new XML tags to the ODF document formats or include entirely new components to it. The good things is that other programs that don't support those new features should still be able to load the document, albeit without the new feature.

ODF is designed for both backward and forward compatibility.

Buoyage

[Epeeist]

> You'll notice there are two standards of Sea Mark (buoys) in existence globally.

True

> The french insisted on keeping their own standard when everyone else had a different one in place.

False. IALA System B is used in the Americas, the Philippines and Japan. Everywhere else in the world uses IALA System A.

Now if you had wanted to bring up prime meridians...

FYI - I teach the UK RYA (Royal Yachting Association) yachtmaster course.

Re:How long before the Microsoft rebuttal report?

[frenchbedroom]

Absolutely, the SNCF's website now works very well with Firefox & friends. It's one of the most successful websites in France, they sell a sh*tload of train tickets through that site every day.

I buy all my tickets from that site, and I haven't been in a waiting line at a station for ages.