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On Wednesday 04 July 2007 13:25, james kilty wrote: > Is anyone talking to them about what they are doing or are they so > mesmerised by Microsoft that they think they are the only ones capable > of assisting them? > > james kilty > http://www.kilty.demon.co.uk Have you ever tried dealing with these "great British Institutions"? After the Beeb iplayer thing was originally vaunted, I emailed them to ask if open formats were being used - they claimed they were considering the options. OK, no problem. Then, when it was announced that they had chosen the Microsoft DRM system - Windows only kids! - I emailed the BBC Trust, the "independant" body which is supposed to oversee the Beeb and ensure our licence fees are not being wasted. They responded with a quick email, thanking me for my message and attaching their resonse. The response was in.... yep, you guessed it - Word .doc format! Bearing in mind that the response could have been simply copied as text to the email, and also that I had already made the point that I do not use Microsoft products, that was rather annoying! At least they replied - many other organisations have never responded to emails. These organisations have no understanding of the issues at all. When the BBC were pulled up regarding the iPlayer only being Windows compatible, they eventually decided that a Mac version would be worked on - and maybe released at the end of the year. No mention of Linux at all. I honestly believe that many (most) companies do not understand that .doc or .ppt or other Windows formats are proprietary. I receive a number of emails from a wide range of people who attach .doc files or excel spreadsheets - despite being informed that I prefer open formats. Mark -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html