|
|
|
Jewish World Review April 8, 2005 / 28 Adar II, 5765 An encouraging trend? By Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
There's a blurring of lines between computer platforms these days, and it
might well be very good news for computer users of all stripes.
The migration of applications — and file formats — between the Microsoft
Windows world and that held by the Apple Macintosh and even the open-source
Linux community is a welcome change from the early days of computing, when
"proprietary" ruled the roost: few programs worked cross-platform, and
sharing data was a hassle.
Consider how much this has changed: there's emulation software to run
Windows, and Windows applications, on Macs, and the software is now made and
sold by...Microsoft, the Windows people. That same firm offers a version of
its Office application suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation
software and contact manager/calendar/e-mail client) for the Mac, and Office
developers on both Windows and Mac come up with new innovations that the
other program's next version adopts.
(This cooperation included, recently, a new import tool for Microsoft
Entourage that will bring over e-mail and contact files from its
Windows-based counterpart Microsoft Outlook, available for free at
http://www.microsoft.com/mac.)
It's no real surprise that Microsoft would provide software for the
Macintosh program: it supplied the first word processor and spreadsheet for
the Mac, and the firm's executives clearly recognize that money can be made
in the Mac market. What's interesting, though, is that other software
publishers are recognizing the usefulness of interoperability across file
formats and platforms.
This was recently demonstrated on the Mac side by Apple's iWork (stet) combo
of a new page layout program, called Pages, and a revision of Keynote, the
firm's presentation program. Both will read from and write to file formats
for their Microsoft peer applications, Word and PowerPoint (stet). But this
kind of compatibility is also a hallmark of a free Windows- and Linux-based
application, OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org), which is gaining a lot
of popularity.
Even Microsoft Word's longtime rival, Corel Corp.'s WordPerfect, which
recently won a massive Department of Justice contract, advertises and
promotes its interoperability with Word files, not to mention an ability to
create the PDF format favored by Adobe Acrobat.
Now in the case of these non-Microsoft applications, there's the chance —
and maybe only a chance — that a highly complex Word document or Excel
spreadsheet won't transfer exactly say from Windows to Linux and back again,
which is why people and organizations that need exact compatibility would do
well to stay with one software family or another. But it's clear that folks
in the OpenOffice crowd (including the commercial developers of StarOffice
(stet), now owned and sold by Sun Microsystems) have worked very diligently
to minimize, if not eliminate, such speed bumps on the road to total file
integration.
Part of this may be pragmatism on the part of Microsoft: the firm is facing
stiff competition from "open source" rivals in both Europe and China. By
allowing other programs to more easily exchange files, Microsoft may
forestall claims that it is a "closed" platform. And part of it is clearly
pragmatism on the part of other software developers and publishers: if
you're going to compete with Microsoft, it's vital to work with their file
formats.
Even more encouraging, in the long run, are efforts to bring emulation
software across platforms. Emulation isn't a total substitute for a computer
natively running another operating system; VirtualPC is a good program for
the Mac, in some instances a very, very good program, but it's not the same
as having a Windows PC, and its makers acknowledge that. There's a Mac
emulator — of the older operating system, not the current OS X — that some
PC users rely on to run a specific Mac application or two, but again, it's
not the same as having the "real thing" at hand. There are emulation
projects afoot to bring Mac OS X to non-Apple computers, although these are
in early stages.
What's encouraging, then, is the notion that applications and operating
systems may some day be truly portable across computing hardware. An early
portent of this is how Linux can turn older PCs, essentially unable to run
the latest Windows, into a graphical computer nonetheless. Where it ends up
is anyone's guess, but it's a trend that could give more life to the PC on
your desk, or the one gathering dust in your closet.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here. © 2005, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||
