[Foundation-l] Freedom, standards, and file formats

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Erik Moeller wrote:
>
> I don't think there's any question that we are committed to making
> sure that every piece of user-facing content, including interactivity,
> can be accessed using 100% open source software. That's an important
> consensus. The primary issue is the question of parallel distribution,
> which is one on which reasonable people can disagree. We should
> collect as much data as possible to help the Board reach a decision on
> that question.
>
>   

Simply because your first statement is in fact totally inaccurate, it is 
clearly a very useful clarification, coming as it does, from someone in 
your position.

:-)

Nevertheless, the statement is not in any shape or form relevant to the 
discussion about document formats. (For those joining the discussion 
late, software and document formats are quite separate things, only very 
tangentially and rarely significantly meeting - I think the brouhaha 
about Lempel-Ziv buried that question for a while)

I don't think suggesting that nailing down that we are committed to 
software being 100% open source, but "flexible" on formats, is a useful 
contribution to the discussion on that front, but more akin to a red 
herring. I think I have said this before. And I think I will continue to 
repeat this whenever given the chance, "ceterum censeo".


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen