ODF Alliance: Microsoft Support for ODF is Lacking
The Open Document Format (ODF) Alliance has analyzed whether Microsoft’s Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 fulfills the promise for compatibility with the free document standard. Their findings give little reason to hope.
The standard organization sees the conversion as a kind of litmus test to see just how serious Microsoft is regarding interoperability. Upon analysis, the enterprise has apparently not done a particularly good job of realizing this aim: "unfortunately, serious shortcomings have been identified in Microsoft’s support for ODF.“, stated Marino Marcich (director of the ODF Alliance). “A number of basic interoperability tests between Microsoft Office 2007 and various ODF-supporting software suites revealed that the level of interoperability is far short of what governments around the world are demanding”, according to Marcich. For example, simple spread sheet functions such as addition do not function under the conversion as well as page numbers, diagrams, and other objects are simply missing when opened in the tests.
In addition, the standards activist Rob Weir a couple of days ago came to a similar conclusion using Excel 2007 with Service Pack 2. Pamela Jones of the legal platform Groklaw was also of the mind that Microsoft had failed to deliver „To Microsoft, vendor lock-in is not a bug, I suspect, but a feature.” She elaborated by explaining she never expected a change of opinion regarding the enterprise, but felt for the various worldwide governments truly trying to attain electronic communication interoperability for their citizens. ODF Alliance boss Marcich also sees this goal as endangered with Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007: “Putting potentially millions of ODF files into circulation that are non-interoperable and incompatible with the ODF support provided by other vendors is a recipe for fragmentation.”
The test results are available as a Fact Sheet on the ODF Alliance Web site.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
-
SUSE Offers CentOS 7 Support with Liberty Linux Lite
SUSE's Liberty Linux support offering now includes CentOS 7, which means businesses won't be forced to migrate those servers for some time.
-
Ubuntu's App Center Finally Supports Local Installs Again
If you regularly download .deb files and would prefer a GUI method of installing, Ubuntu has your back.
-
AlmaLinux Now Supports Raspberry Pi 5
If you're looking to create with the Raspberry Pi 5 and want to use AlmaLinux as your OS, you're in luck because it's now possible.
-
Kubuntu Focus Releases New Iterations of Ir14 and Ir16 Laptops
If you're a fan of the Kubuntu Focus laptops or have been waiting for the right time to purchase one, that time might be now.
-
NixOS 24.05 Is Ready for Prime Time
The latest release of NixOS (Uakari) has arrived and offers its usual reproducible, declarative, and reliable goodness.
-
Linux Lite 7.0 Officially Released
Based on Ubuntu 24.04 and kernel 6.8, Linux Lite version 7 now offers more options than ever.
-
KaOS Linux 2024.05 Adds Bcachfs Support and More
With updates all around, KaOS Linux now includes support for the bcachefs file system.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils New Iteration of the Stellaris Laptop Line
The Stellaris Slim 15 is the 6th generation and includes either an AMD or Intel CPU