Re: [Fsfe-uk] E-envoy and Open file formats

[ian]

On Sun, 2003-08-03 at 22:11, Chris Croughton wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 03, 2003 at 09:20:49PM +0100, ian wrote:
> 
> > Ok, As for OO.o rc2. Just check the site. Of course you can download it
> > in binary, and you can get it on CD for a nominal cost from a number of
> > sources worldwide, there are mailing lists giving comprehensive support
> > etc etc.
> 
> Hmm, no mention of what the differences are that I can see.  And does it
> really work with any version of X (none is mentioned)?

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/1.1rc2/

Click on the links. I have it working on Mandrake 9.1 and Windows XP
straight from the download files, no idea about others but you can ask
on address@hidden if your system doesn't work with it.

>   I can't use the
> binaries, though, because they are linked with glibc2.2 and I'm running
> with 2.1, so I can't see if it will work with whatever version of X this
> machine is running (3.3.6, I think; Mozilla binaries won't, I know).
> 
> > There is an iso project so you can get it to auto install on
> > Windows to try and lower barriers further. Frankly, I'm amazed at the
> > negative attitudes to this. If you can't understand why getting a free
> > and open file format onto Government web sites is good for free software
> > there really is no hope and I'm wasting my time here.
> 
> See my last paragraph.  OO is indeed /a/ "free and open format", what is
> disagreed about is whether it is the best one (it certainly isn't the
> only one available) to have on Government sites. 

If you believe there is a better one, I suggest you do what I did and
contact the people concerned and make a case for it. The fundamental
issue is getting people thinking about Open file formats and getting
more people aware of major free software projects such as OO.o. 

> As someone else wrote, if Government gets the idea that you are using
> this to 'push' free software then there will be a backlash. 

Oh come on, you think we shouldn't do anything to push free software in
Government? We have to get politically competent here.

>  The point
> is to push for a format open to all, and that will benefit free software
> by taking away the MS advantage and making it a "level playing field".

So what do you suggest? Plain text is a non-starter or it would already
be in use as would HTML.

-- 
ian <address@hidden>