Le Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:34:29 +0200, Manfred Usselmann <usselman...@icg-online.de> a écrit :
> On Sat, 25 Jun 2011 01:25:47 -0700 (PDT) > plino <pedl...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > In any case, if LibreOffice's goal is to be a suite that stands > > behind the ODF format then it should review what it promises. If it > > can't embed fonts, it can never be a replacement for MS Office. > > Does MS Office embed fonts? > > Manfred > No it doesn't. But I think we're also missing the point if -let's say we were to design a brand new office file format that embeds or does not embed fonts- why should anyone be using it? Choosing a format that's not the dominant format is already a reasoned choice, oftentimes an act of departure from the dominant player, and sometimes a political act. Embedding fonts will not magically solve the MSFT formats dominance in the field of office suite. The challenger here is ODF, which has a rather wide support that extends much beyond LibreOffice. We certainly can improve ODF and are encouraged to do so; but I would like to point out that document formats follow (strange?)specific rules and patterns that usually do not rely on any specific feature that would decide its dominance. The most famous pattern here is the network effect, essentially meaning that the more a format gets used, well... the more it gets used :) In order to change its dominance you need to be breaking its "network" of users and you can't do it because you have something better (okay, you should have something better, but it usually does not rely on the format if it's meant to serve the same purposes) but because users or the ones mandating such uses have taken the decision to stop using the dominant format. Hence the value of standardization that helps enable a level playing field for the competition but also acts as a value proposition that has in itself the merit of breaking the habit of using the format of the dominant player. Best, Charles. -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
