It looks as if Microsoft has filed for patents in Europe and New Zealand on the XML format they use for Office documents. Ironic that part of the whole original vision of XML was inter-operability and communication. XML was hailed as a lingua franca that could be used as the glue between dissimilar systems. Microsoft’s move to patent an XML format, or it’s use by other applications is, to me, really obnoxious. I would say that the patenting of an open specification adoption and specific usage would be clearly rejected by the patent offices, but, well…
Microsoft knows Linux is a threat, mostly on the server and in larger institutions. Arve Bersvendsen recently pointed out that for the average home & SOHO user, Linux on the desktop is not a yet a threat to Microsoft. While he uses a broad definition of Linux, not distinguishing the OS from the complete installed system, it is a definition most non-Linux advocate’s identify with, and he is right—the Linux core OS is ready and can be transparent to the user, but the “Linux Desktop” experience is far from that point. My sister–in-law, Mom & Dad, Grandfather, a few business clients and everyone else I act as ‘private tech support’ for—except my wife who has in-house tech support to tailor her system to her needs—would not make the switch to Linux on the desktop, and to tell the truth, I would not push them towards that either, at least for right now.
Windows works for them and even though it may annoy the more advanced of them, it is generally simple, comfortable and usually transparent to them. They, like most users, are task driven, not technology or philosophy driven in their computer use. All of them, however, would be willing to switch to OpenOffice—especially when it is system or Office Suite License upgrade / renewal time. OpenOffice is a genuine threat to Microsoft’s Office Suite across almost every user category. OpenOffice works, and requires very little adjustment to switch from MS Office. It gets the tasks done efficiently in a way that is familiar enough to users to be comfortable—it doesn’t let it’s technology or philosophy get in the way of efficient task accomplishment. It’s now on three more computers that shipped with MS Word or Microsoft’s stripped down Works package. All three users were going to buy MS Office for these systems, but all now report they are happy they didn’t.
In related news, Bruce Perens was recently interviewed by the BBC on the subject of Patents, SCO and Linux. When asked about challenges to Linux and Open Source Software in the next 18 months, Bruce expressed that he doesn’t see the SCO issue doing any long term damage The good news is that SCO has pretty much exhausted any chance of being successful in court.
He goes on to explain that the real challenge is in the wide-spread, over broad patenting of software.
“You have to consider engineers today spend their entire careers combining other people’s intellectual property. And every small and medium sized enterprise is at risk regarding software patenting…
“We’re looking at a future where only the very largest companies will be able to implement software, and it will technically be illegal for other people to do so. That’s a very, very bad situation developing. We must do something so that there is reason for people to innovate, there is reason for people to invent, but that companies can execute without this constant fear that we will be sued into the ground regarding software patenting.”
Bruce thinks that this year will be a strong year for Linux on the desktop, with large deployments in companies such as IBM and large institution and government agencies. I hope he is correct, and judging from some recent news from IBM, the Austin TX. city government, Massachusetts, government agencies in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Israel—among others—I think he is. Hopefully this will increase the development of a novice / average computer user friendly Linux Desktop implementation that, like OpenOffice, doesn’t let it’s technical or philosophical standards get in the way of ease of use and just getting the task done simply and efficiently. We’re most of the way there, but the last miles of an uphill finish are often the hardest—the goal is close enough to taste but too far away to provide any relief.
