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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: The real reason for an OASIS database?
From:       "M. Fioretti" <mfioretti () mclink ! it>
Date:       2004-05-23 17:48:36
Message-ID: 20040523174836.GB3099 () mclink ! it
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On Sun, May 23, 2004 18:12:27 PM +0100, David Goodenough
(david.goodenough@btconnect.com) wrote:

> Why on earth should a non-geek user care about file formats.

Why on earth should he not?

Try lecturing non geeks for one week about KOffice (or whatever else)
being Free as in Freedom, free as in beer, better user interface, far
greater stability, no viruses, and so on. Then listen to them
screaming when they install, start, and find that their documents
don't look 100% the same as in MS Office. Or just (if databases) won't
open.

A non geek user doesn't *realize* that he's asking a common file
format, but he cares all right. File formats are the *only* thing that
is really keeping many individuals and companies from dropping MS
Office for good.

> I suppose the only possible reason would be so that you could eMail
> a DB in the same was that you eMail a document, but then it would
> have to be compatible with Access itself,

Never mind Access, at least in this thread: let's sort it out among
Free SW users first.

> Do you actually want to send the whole DB, or just bits of it?

Yes, sorry if it wasn't clear from the beginning. I am referring
exactly to this case. Don't think mission critical, multi-threaded,
million-records server stuff. Think the overwhelming majority of
databases, those in the drives of SOHO users who couldn't care less
for all that muscle.

Let's imagine that KOffice transition to OASIS is already completed.
Then you'll be able to send the *full*, original sxw document to an
OO.o user on Windows. Not some least-common-denominator "export
format". The question non geeks will ask is where is the same thing
for databases? The equivalent of .mdb
single-file-no-root-password-no-extra-sw databases? Fully shareable at
least between KOffice and OO.o?

Ciao,
	Marco Fioretti

-- 
Marco Fioretti                 mfioretti, at the server mclink.it
Red Hat for low memory         http://www.rule-project.org/en/

The whole world is a tuxedo and you are a pair of brown shoes.
                -- George Gobel
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