Tech news: According to screen shots leaked on the Internet of "Longhorn" -- the next version of Windows -- it will include a utility called .
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I was very disappointed a while ago when I had to download a form from the US Govt which was formatted as a MicroSoft Word ".doc". This ".doc", when converted was complete gibberish, and there was no "freeware" translator for this ... AppleWorks didn't work.
Where does the US Govt have the right to make us use propriatary software to access public forms?
I find that any federal, state, or local govt that uses formats, such as ".doc" are targets for a Supreme Court lawsuit by the public.
...in truth, I know there has been such a legal amendment, but I don't know the details. I do know that the practice goes on, and even though it is not govt email attachments, I still get, or have gotten many ".doc"s I could read correctly.
I have never had a problem with Aodbe PDF. They print great, download great, and read great.
Want to see a good example of a PDF magazine which is exactly formatted as the printed version sold at Borders,..and the online is free: http://www.homepower.com
$40 billion dollars..and not ONE innovative idea. Microshit should be shut down man..rid this earth of this cheap garbage
it works
"Where does the US Govt have the right to make us use propriatary software to access public forms?"
What forms where you trying to download? I work with federal forms (IRS and Dept. of Ed) all the time at my job and they're in PDF format.
It could just be a particular department you were trying to work with didn't really have their electronic doc's in order.
The 'government' isn't trying to force you to do anything. It's more likely some underpaid (if he/she paid at all) intern didn't have their act together. Call the office you're trying to work with and ask for clarification next time.
oh, and a side note to the previous comment. Even if documents are in PDF format, doesn't that in turn endorse PDF format in the same way as DOC files? The argument for PDF files is that they hold their formatting and there are numerous free applications for viewing PDF files - verses having to buy Word to view a DOC file. However, doesn't that stifle competition to the PDF format if everyone uses it?
My point is that the government has to pick a format of some kind for electronic documentation. Regardless of the format they use, it can be seen as an endorsement whether the federal government wishes it or not.
Damn, they're such biters!
what's funny is i used to work for the company that provided Apple w/ the tech for iSync. we had a web-based product called Sync Manager that looks a bit too similar to the Longhorn screenshot (though while we worked w/ MS on some fronts, i dunno if we ever showed them that app specifically).
The issue isn't that the US government (or any other government, for that matter) is endorsing or forcing people to use a particular format--if they're going to do it, they've gotta pick something, or you might as well make the argument that they're pushing the sale of 8.5" by 11" paper over A5 or another "competing" size.
However, what does matter, is that governments pick a format that doesn't create a hardship on the people who it is supposed to serve. Using a proprietary Microsoft format (or any other completely closed format) is such a case--although you might have Wordpad built into windows, there is no "standard" .doc format that is outside the control of a single company, and users of other platforms don't have any guaranteed way to view the documents.
I'm not actually entirely sure about the openness of PDF as a format (probably something like HTML that is controlled by an outside standards body would be better, assuming that's not the case with PDF), but it's somewhat of an improvement over .doc, anyway--at least there seem to be more PDF-related tools in existance.
Really, though, a government format should be relatively easily accessable by free tools on any viable platform, as is the case with HTML, and anybody (including the government, if necessary) should be able to build a reader from the standards if they want.
oh, and a side note to the previous comment. Even if documents are in PDF format, doesn't that in turn endorse PDF format in the same way as DOC files? The argument for PDF files is that they hold their formatting and there are numerous free applications for viewing PDF files - verses having to buy Word to view a DOC file. However, doesn't that stifle competition to the PDF format if everyone uses it?
PDF is an open and free format allowed to be used by one and all. That's why Apple chose it over display postscript for Quartz. No licensing fees. There's no stifling of competition if people use PDF (or some standard XML format, for that matter) as long as its following the standard. This would allow people to use whatever product they wanted to not only read the files, but create and edit them. PDF also is platform neutral, as opposed to Word, which won't run on Unix based machines (except OS X, and that's just for the time being).
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so...
So in 2005 (whenever Longhorn comes out) PC users will be able to do the same syncing that Mac users have been able to do for the past year?
And my PC friends wonder why I bought a Mac. Why wait when the technology is already here and easy to use?