Norway Mandates Government Use of ODF and PDF 187
siDDis writes "Earlier this year Slashdot mentioned that Norway was moving towards mandatory use of ODF and PDF. Now it's official: the Norwegian government has mandated the use of open document formats from January 1st, 2009. There are three formats that have been mandated for all documentation between authorities, users and partners. HTML for all public information on the Web, PDF for all documents where layout needs to be preserved and ODF for all documents that the recipient is supposed to be able to edit. Documents may also be published in other formats, but they must always be available in either ODF or PDF."
well duh (Score:5, Insightful)
unnecessary (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about postscript? (Score:5, Insightful)
2. PDFs are relatively tamper-resistant
3. PDFs are more widely understood
4. PDFs are lighter to render
I could go on about how they handle images and whatnot better too, but PS is a wonderful format when you still need to work with the document - I'm being completely serious here - but PDF is better as the final distribution method.
Forget Norway... what's Kenya doing? (Score:3, Insightful)
But the idea of thomas.loc.gov all being in PDF... wow...
Re:well duh (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows doesn't come free with a computer. Or maybe the first hit does - can't remember anymore
Re:well duh (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:well duh (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Will Norway's stand, stand the test of time? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:well duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but to run Windows in a VM you need a copy of Windows. If you buy a machine on which to run Windows, Microsoft only gets the relatively small amount they charge the OEMs. If you buy a copy of Windows retail to run in your VM, Microsoft makes more. So if your goal is to minimize the amount you give to Microsoft, buying a separate Windows machine is actually the better choice, isn't it?
Re:well duh (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Way too Orwellian (Score:5, Insightful)
They already mandate the use of standard containers or transmission media for other types of information, you can call the government on the telephone but you can't contact them using ham radio... You can write them a letter on a piece of paper, but you can't carve them a stone tablet.
They have to standardise on one format for practical reasons, to support a wide range of formats is more expensive and more error prone. As a taxpayer, i don't want to be paying unnecessarily for the government to support multiple formats.
They should standardise on published documented standards for several reasons.
They provide the widest and lowest cost access for the population who have to deal with the government, programs for reading/writing standard formats such as PDF and ODF are available for a wide range of systems and at a wide range of pricing/support structures. Meaning, you can obtain such programs for free if you want, or if your needs/budget are different you can obtain software with varying levels of commercial support. Big vendors such as IBM, Sun and Novell provide commercial applications and support for ODF if that's what you need. Because there are multiple vendors, competition pushes the prices down and quality up.
If they were to use a proprietary format, not only would they lock themselves in but also force third parties dealing with them to get themselves locked in too. By using a proprietary format the government are forced to purchase proprietary products at whatever price is set, and the end users are similarly forced. Because they need these particular programs (and anything else they might require) to deal with the government, people have no choice but to buy them. Because of this, the vendor can charge ridiculous amounts for retail copies while potentially giving the government big discounts to discourage them from migrating.
As a taxpayer, i don't want the government to waste money dealing with multiple formats.
As a taxpayer, i want them purchasing their software in a competitive marketplace so that they get the best deal.
As an end user, i want the same ability to go for the best deal rather than being forced down a particular route.
As a taxpayer, most important of all i want a government that does the best for ITS PEOPLE... I want a government that fights for the best deal, I want a government that buys from local suppliers whenever possible (paying more to a local supplier than to a foreign one is often a better deal, since a big chunk of that money will come back as tax), I want a government that doesn't force unnecessary expenses on it's people - especially expenses that cause money to leave the country.
Any government that forces all of it's taxpayers to spend $450 on a foreign product is acting irresponsibly, that's a huge amount of money leaving the country.
M$ Hires Blackwater to Fix Norway's Terrorists (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The writing's on the wall (Score:4, Insightful)
These people may not be as sophisticated as a 'big city' computer company, but you don't have to be Donald Knuth to spot the kind of shadiness that took place in ISO.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:well duh (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows doesn't come free with a computer. Or maybe the first hit does - can't remember anymore
Hmm... Windows didn't come with the Mac I bought last year. And most likely my next computer will have Linux pre-loaded.