«

More disappointing news for the small-minded ideological fanatics (you know
who you are) who traffic in anti-Microsoft FUD. Seems the rest of the
software development world is just getting on with things:

http://tinyurl.com/6rov2g

"At the OSCON open source conference in Portland, Oregon, Microsoft
announced that it had become a Platinum sponsor ($100,000 a year) of the
Apache Software Foundation, like Google and Yahoo. The move is probably
connected with Apache's on-going efforts to support Microsoft Office's new
standard Open XML file formats via the Apache POI project.

"It's not a big enough deal for a press release, apparently, but one of
Microsoft's open source people, Sam Ramji, blogged the announcement, saying:
"I am grateful to Andy Oliver, the creator and maintainer of Apache POI, for
contacting me back in June with a hope that Microsoft could supply the
necessary rights for POI." Andy Oliver, in turn, posted as follows:

'I have been working with Sam Ramji and Robert Duffner from Microsoft, and I
have been very pleased to resolve the issues that I had with the work they
are funding for the Apache POI project. Not only has Microsoft addressed the
concerns that I had with regards to patents and OOXML, but they have gone a
step further and added the binary formats to the list. By publishing their
clarifications to the Open Specification Promise (OSP), Microsoft has acted
both in good faith and purpose. For me personally, this is a big step
forward. At one time, I donated my Open Source project to Apache, partially
out of fear of Microsoft. Now, Microsoft is becoming a key contributor to
this project.'

"Microsoft is obviously keen to get open source software running on Windows,
but as Ramji points out: 'It is not a move away from IIS as Microsoft's
strategic web server technology. We have invested significantly in
refactoring and adding new, state-of-the-art features to IIS, including
support for PHP. We will continue to invest in IIS for the long term and are
currently under way with development of IIS 8.'

"Companies developing or shipping products that support Office Open XML file
formats also include IBM, Sun, Apple, Novell, Corel, DataViz, Nuance, Adobe,
ThinkFree and Zoho. "

"sam" <> wrote in message news:488cfbc4$...
> impossible wrote:
>> More disappointing news for the small-minded ideological fanatics (you
>> know who you are) who traffic in anti-Microsoft FUD. Seems the rest of
>> the software development world is just getting on with things:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/6rov2g
>>
>> "At the OSCON open source conference in Portland, Oregon, Microsoft
>> announced that it had become a Platinum sponsor ($100,000 a year) of the
>> Apache Software Foundation, like Google and Yahoo. The move is probably
>> connected with Apache's on-going efforts to support Microsoft Office's
>> new standard Open XML file formats via the Apache POI project.
>>
>> "It's not a big enough deal for a press release, apparently, but one of
>> Microsoft's open source people, Sam Ramji, blogged the announcement,
>> saying: "I am grateful to Andy Oliver, the creator and maintainer of
>> Apache POI, for contacting me back in June with a hope that Microsoft
>> could supply the necessary rights for POI." Andy Oliver, in turn, posted
>> as follows:
>>
>> 'I have been working with Sam Ramji and Robert Duffner from Microsoft,
>> and I have been very pleased to resolve the issues that I had with the
>> work they are funding for the Apache POI project. Not only has Microsoft
>> addressed the concerns that I had with regards to patents and OOXML, but
>> they have gone a step further and added the binary formats to the list.
>> By publishing their clarifications to the Open Specification Promise
>> (OSP), Microsoft has acted both in good faith and purpose. For me
>> personally, this is a big step forward. At one time, I donated my Open
>> Source project to Apache, partially out of fear of Microsoft. Now,
>> Microsoft is becoming a key contributor to this project.'
>>
>> "Microsoft is obviously keen to get open source software running on
>> Windows, but as Ramji points out: 'It is not a move away from IIS as
>> Microsoft's strategic web server technology. We have invested
>> significantly in refactoring and adding new, state-of-the-art features to
>> IIS, including support for PHP. We will continue to invest in IIS for the
>> long term and are currently under way with development of IIS 8.'
>>
>> "Companies developing or shipping products that support Office Open XML
>> file formats also include IBM, Sun, Apple, Novell, Corel, DataViz,
>> Nuance, Adobe, ThinkFree and Zoho. "
>>
>>>
> They will still have to contend with ASFs good natured leg pulling.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_POI
>

Wake up, Sam. The train has left the station already.