The release of OpenOffice 2.0 was a notable event related to several topics
discussed in class.  An obvious one is vendor lock-in.  Microsoft has relied
on its proprietary Office file formats to lock-in the consumer.  The files
authored in Word, for instance, were not compatible with any other Office
suite until OpenOffice became available.  With 2.0 cross compatibility has
improved to the point where some Microsoft Office users may consider
switching.

In addition to locking-in customers into a proprietary format, office suites
generally have very strong network effect behind them.  Because documents are
often shared, new users are compelled into buying the office suite used by the
majority of their business partners.  The proprietary standard thus becomes
entrenched with most people eventually using the same software.  OpenOffice
aims to break the network effect and provide a free alternative capable of
viewing and authoring documents in the Microsoft's .doc format.  The
proprietary standard was reverse-engineered, which is not illegal.

Another aspect of this is complements.  OpenOffice runs on a variety of
platforms from Windows to Unix.  Historically, Microsoft Office has only
worked with Windows operating system, another Microsoft product.  Customers
who needed Microsoft Office had no choice but to default to Windows.
OpenOffice makes it possible to read and write Microsoft Office documents on
any platform.

Article Text:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1549201339;fp;16;fpid;0

The OpenOffice.org Project on Thursday released OpenOffice.org 2.0, adding new
features that the group claim will resonate with users from business and
governments right down to the home desktop. The product will be simultaneously
released for a range of operating systems including Linux and Microsoft
Windows.

According to Jacqueline McNally, OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead, the
suite will be ready for download from 13:00 UTC (11:00pm Australian Eastern
Standard Time). "This gives our mirror sites time to get updated." By
spreading the load users wont have to face any congestion as has happened with
previous releases.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 was developed over the past two years by a community made
up of independant programmers and widely known technology companies including
primary sponsor Sun Microsystems, Novell, Red Hat, Debian, and Intel.

Advocates of the new version of the software suite point to the applications
potential as a serious contender to Microsoft Office. "OpenOffice.org is on a
path toward being the most popular office suite the world has ever seen;
providing users with safety, choice, and an opportunity to participate in one
of the broadest community efforts the Internet has ever seen," said Sun COO
Jonathan Schwartz in a statement.

New to the Office suite are the database module called OpenOffice.org Base and
native support for the OpenDocument format. The application also sports an
overhaul to the user interface.

OpenDocument is an XML file format for saving office documents such as
spreadsheets, memos, charts, and presentations. It was approved as an OASIS
(Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)
standard at the beginning of this year. OpenDocument, set as a default in
OpenOffice, is cited by proponents as a way of fighting vendor lock-in
associated with proprietary formats. Already, it is the required office format
for internal archives of the US State of Massachusetts.

However, it does not look likely that Microsoft will support the format in its
forthcoming Office 12 suite.

"Microsoft strongly supports standards, and will continue to respond to
customer demand. To date, we have not heard from customers that ODF is a
priority for them," said Tony Wilkinson, Director, Information Worker Business
Group Microsoft Australia. "Microsoft's default schema is publicly available
and we make it licensable, royalty-free."

Also new to version 2 is BASE. It allows users to manipulate database data
within OpenOffice.org. Users can either create and modify tables, forms,
queries, and reports, using their own database or BASE's own built-in HSQL
database engine.

OpenOffice.org claim the new interface in version 2.0 is designed ease the
transition from other office suite packages to OpenOffice.org 2.0; and to make
is make it more livelier for existing users. Floating toolbars and multi-pane
views are available in this version.

PDF support is extended from OpenOffice.org version 1.1 to provide support for
links, indexes, forms, thumbnails and presentation transition effects. The
Calc module now supports up to 65,536 rows of data. XForms, an XML format for
the specification of user interfaces, are also integrated into OpenOffice.org.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 runs natively on Windows, GNU/Linux, Sun Solaris, Mac OS X
(X11). Other platforms are also supported.