Garza’s BLOG

How is this possible, you get better results, compatibility with all major platforms and the Big Gaming companies still choose DirectX?

They have absolutely no technical arguments to prefer DirectX, but of course they are all bought by Microsoft. But why? The answer is simple, I know a lot of gamers who only use Windows for gaming, because their games are not compatible with Linux nor Mac. Here I found an article about the topic, hope you like it:

Why You Should Use OpenGL And Not DirectX

Some months ago I configured my domain to work with Google Apps. I was really thrilled because I read that they supported ODF. My first though was that I would be able to work on documents with Open Office and then be also able to rework them on Google Docs. Saddly that was not the case, I tried to upload a 47.8KB ODT file and to my surprise I got the following:

The worst is that even in Google Docs you get the following when trying to upload a file:

Types of files that you can upload:

Documents (up to 500KB)

• HTML files and plain text (.txt).
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).

Presentations (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web, 500KB via email)

• Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).

Spreadsheets (up to 1MB)

• Comma Separated Value (.csv).
• Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).

PDF Files (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web)

Then I decided to check on this and found the following in an Official Google Blog: A renewed wish for open document standards. Be aware that they use the plural form: standards. They write about supporting the Open document Format, saddly support in their Google Docs product doesn’t really exist, at least not in the technical way, which is what really matters to users. They write the following:

Google supports open document standards and the Open Document Format – ODF, the recognized international standard (ISO 26300). ODF is supported and implemented across the globe, and its communal creation and iteration has helped ensure the transparency, consistency and interoperability necessary in a workable standard.

SOURCE: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/renewed-wish-for-open-document.html

I now assume they refer to the support in the political way, but I find this ridiculous. For me this is misguiding the users, I’m really disappointed and believe that they should not be allowed to publish they support a format when they don’t. Also that is not correct that they write specifically that you can upload ODT files when they don’t really support them.

I also found a relatively old article saying Google Docs doesn’t really support ODT, but SXW. Since that article is from 2006, you would assume that they had already done somthing about it, but apparently that’s not the case.

During this “real life” tests, we noticed that all the files created with the online application “Google Docs” were not converted successfully. This was strange enough for us to look in detail at what was wrong. And we found out that Google Docs was simply not able to export to ODF. Actually, the file menu says “Save as OpenOffice” and not “Save as OpenDocument”. The output file is an SXW file (the legacy format from previous versions of Star Office and OpenOffice.org)… with an ODT extension! I don’t know if by doing this way the guys from Google wanted to make people think that they had implemented the ODF format, but that was a nice try! I guess that they are working hard to achieve the compatibility, but in the mean time our converter won’t be able to open documents made with Google Docs – no need to complain, we have commited to handle OASIS OpenDocument format, not all the formats of the earth!

SOURCE: http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/blog/index.php?2006/11/03/14-what-s-the-problem-with-google-docs

And well, I also encounter some other stuff about OOXML, and I completely support Google’s point of view, since they have many concerns like:

• The limitations on the openness of OOXML format;
• The lack of proper review as compared to other ISO standards;
• The continued use of binary code tied to platform-specific features; and
• Unclear licensing terms for third-party implementers.

SOURCE: http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/Google%20XML%20Q%20%20A%20(2).pdf

From my point of view, ODF should be the standard Office Document Format and even though many belive that ODF is basically implemented around OpenOffice; Koffice and LotusNotes prove them wrong:

The OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) is the ISO standard for office document interchange. ODF has been selected as the national standard for many countries around the world, and continues to grow stronger every month. KOffice uses the OpenDocument Format as its native format. This will guarantee interoperability with many other Office packages such as OpenOffice.org and MS Office. The KOffice team has representatives on the OASIS technical committee for ODF and has been a strong participant in the process of shaping ODF since
its inception.

SOURCE: http://dot.kde.org/2009/05/28/koffice-200-released

At the OpenOffice.org (OO) Conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a long-term commitment to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) by unveiling a roadmap for the expansion of the free Lotus Symphony office application suite to MacIntosh, Ubuntu Linux, OpenOffice 3.0 and Microsoft Office customers.

SOURCE: http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/press/us/en/pressrelease/25912.wss

So I would love to get an explanation from Google about why they write they support ODF format, when they really don’t.