Hopefully the rest of Europe will follow.
Germany has just made the standard Open Document Format (ODF) mandatory
Submitted 1 month ago by FirmDistribution@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/03/19/germanys-sovereign-digital-stack-mandates-odf
Comments
Freakazoid@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
RobotToaster@mander.xyz 1 month ago
Oddly the UK is somehow ahead here gov.uk/…/using-open-document-formats-odf-in-your-…
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Despite being so shit in many different respects (a chronic use of external consultants and contractors means the UK seems less likely than other European countries to make progress on a sovereign tech stack), the UK is pretty good with its data. There’s a surprisingly amount of data that’s released and is in a sensible format.
During the teachers strikes last year, I ended up using playing around making visualisations using the data about the number of teachers in various parts of the country, and I was pleased to see how much there was there and how clearly it was documented. There are very few things I’m proud of the UK for, so I am glad to have this as one
fluxx@mander.xyz 1 month ago
Wow, some good news on Lemmy? Sign me up!
Slovene85@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
themaninblack@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Sick! Are there any more of these?
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Hell yes. I wonder how many man-hours of strategy meetings MS had on their calendars to fend that decision off.
Kapirotto@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
It’s so good to see initiatives like these! Hope it spreads across Europe and the World.
wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe 1 month ago
Based
Hiro8811@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Isn’t odf the one used by libre office?
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
More than that, it’s standardization made MS panic and pseudo-standardize their OOXML (.docx & co.) a year later, since some govt wanted to switch to ODF back in 2007, instead of relying on sone proprietary format. The pseudo, because most of the format is proprietary extensions (and only the strict variant, which MS doesn’t set as default), which made the standardization a …unusual process.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yes and they they switched form MsOffice to Libre like few years ago
k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Isn’t it odt that LibreOffice uses? I wonder what the difference is.
trougnouf@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Open document text is a subset of open document format
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Gotta love Germany.
Fun fact: the German equivalent of the BBC, DW, will teach you German if you want to learn it, for free. A but niche but a nice thing to do!
LorIps@lemmy.world 1 month ago
DW isn’t the equivalent of the BBC, it would be the equivalent of e.g. Radio Free Europe. DW is entirely funded by the German government, in contrast to the BBC or ARD/ZDF which are independently funded. I’m not saying DW is bad, but it isn’t the equivalent of the BBC.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Their contract with Microslop must be up for renegotiation.
maplesaga@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Much of Europe break their own procurement laws to choose Microslop, no idea why.
recycle_me_please@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Gut
ripcord@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I remember reading this headline in 2004
ruplicant@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
good!
I’m gonna repeat this, as expressed here, to a few people
S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
As a guy who worked with property recods in US fucking yes. Some states gove the records in a closed format invented by one company. So you have to have their software if you want to work in some states.
Add it to the pile of illegal shit that is legal I guess…
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’ve heard building codes can be just as bad, some places the law just says to follow a book and you have to pay some company like $300 to get the book and license things