<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Jan Bongaerts schreef: <blockquote cite="mid:c199814e0911032253w771f27bcm22cfca4bdd71eb8f@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">The way I interpret this, it doesn't seem they want to force anything either way. It would appear that they also want the people to be able to exercise their right to be a real dumb-ass and stick to Microsoft and their cronies. Forcing Open Source and/or Linux down everyone's throat wouldn't be fair neither. </blockquote> If it would be about open source software, you would be right. But it's not!!! It's about open standards, which doesn't have very much to do with Linux. See <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://nl.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_standaarden#Vaak_voorkomende_misverstanden">http://nl.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_standaarden#Vaak_voorkomende_misverstanden</a> (but it's in Dutch). So it's eg. not about OpenOffice.org, but about OpenDocumentFormat (which you can open with OpenOffice, KOffice, AbiWord,...). So it's eg. not about Windows Media Player, but about Ogg Vorbis or Ogg Theora (eg.). These misunderstandings between Open Source Software and Open Standards happen a lot, it's very important to understand the differences, although they seem alike! Greetings Mattias <blockquote cite="mid:c199814e0911032253w771f27bcm22cfca4bdd71eb8f@mail.gmail.com" type="cite"> Just like one should still be free to choose to become a bum in Brussels. It does have it advantages too, you know. Especially when you throw all your papers away, you get all sorts of perks from our government! Or have I missed the plot here? Jan. <div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 1:27 AM, Jan Claeys <<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:ubuntu@janc.be">ubuntu@janc.be</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Op dinsdag 03-11-2009 om 09:42 uur [tijdzone +0100], schreef Jan Bongaerts: <div class="im">> Even if it is important, if this is implemented this way, ignoring Mr. > Novaretti's statement, I don't think it would *ban* open standards, > but it just would not *demand* them. That would only seem fair, > wouldn't it? </div> This is about how information is communicated to us, citizens, and how we can communicate with the government. I don't want the EU or national or local government to be able to force me and tell me which operating system, office software, browser, etc. I have to use (if I don't want to become a homeless person living in the Brussels metro). -- Jan Claeys -- <div> <div class="h5">ubuntu-be mailing list / mailto:<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:ubuntu-be@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-be@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-be" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-be</a> </div> </div> </blockquote> </div> -- Microsoft programs are like Englishmen. They only speak Microsoft. </blockquote> </body> </html>