Article: Document or else

[Katie Kearns]

On 7/5/06, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr at genek.com> wrote:
>
> The article cited in the original post described Microsoft's efforts as
> attempting to head off fines resulting from antitrust rulings, not the
> potential loss of government business.  It also referred to the US
> Justice Dept as another agency looking over the company's shoulders.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng


Right -- I think all the other examples only prove my point. The market can
exert pressure to make companies all come into line and use more open
formats, whether it's 6-sided bolts (though they still come in cm, inches,
etc. Or you might have phillips vs flathead vs Torx -- I hate torx...). But
it's the market exerting the pressure, not a threated fine, and the market
does a much better job of expressing it's desires and reacting dynamically
than legislation does.

And the fine is a pretty big deal -- $2.5 million per *day*, backdated over
a year! Well, that means it starts at over a billion dollars, just off the
bat. Sounds something like highway robbery to me.

Saying, "Hey, we hate your format, we won't buy it" isn't the same thing at
all. That's the way it's supposed to work, and has worked for a very long
time.

Proprietary formats are not always about "locking people in". Especially
since other folks will often find ways to help you unlock yourself. ;) (With
Word 2003, I can take the XML and convert it to any open format you want,
with probably a day or less of coding). Often the open format is either in
flux (perhaps it hasn't been settled yet and you want to get a product out
and don't want to wait for everyone to agree -- this happens a lot), or
simply useless because it was developed by committee.

-Katie