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Okay, so I'm beginning to think the entire "blogosphere" needs to be smacked.
The latest bit of stupid? Well, let me quote from Mary Jo Foley, (who should know better):
Ironically, Microsoft’s latest move in its Open XML-ODF chess game comes the same week that Microsoft admitted that it is delaying the delivery of converters needed by existing Mac Office users to read Microsoft’s Open XML formats that are baked into Office 2007.
Who was Mary Jo's source? Why that bastion of Mac News Accuracy, C|Net:
Microsoft now says a plug-in that will allow Office 2004 to fully work with the new formats won't be ready until six to eight weeks after the Office 2008 for Mac software suite ships, sometime in the second half of this year. Instead, the company is offering a separate downloadable converter program, starting Tuesday, designed to enable Office for Mac users to convert Word 2007's .docx files to the Rich Text Format, or RTF, which can be read by all Mac OS X versions of Office.
In the next paragraph, they give their reason for saying it's "now", (as of 15 March) delayed:
The Redmond, Wash., software giant said it hopes to have similar conversion tools for Excel and PowerPoint by the summer. This is not the first time Microsoft has pushed out its plans for Mac support for the new Office file formats. In December, Microsoft said a conversion tool for the formats, originally expected around the time of the product's January mainstream launch, wouldn't come until March or April.
This is based on a Mac Mojo posting which said:
So now that Office for Windows has been released, we are working on completing compatibility with the released formats, while also completing other major work such as moving our codebase to the Intel platform, which we have discussed at some length on this very blog and elsewhere. We are running on target and expect to release a free public beta version of the file format converters in Spring 2007, with final converters available six to eight weeks after we launch our next version of Office for Mac (which, as previously reported, will be available 6-8 months after general availability of Win Office.)
But wait...that's um...well, that's what they always said. In fact, here's the quote from Roz Ho on it:
PressPass: Since Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will be released after the 2007 Office system, how will customers be able to access the new XML files in the 2007 Office system now to ensure compatibility?Ho: We’re building file-format converters that will allow Mac users to access Office Open XML Format following the general availability of the 2007 Office system at the end of January. We will release a public beta version of the converters in the spring of 2007, and final versions of the converters will ship six to eight weeks after Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is available. For now, we recommend that Mac users advise their friends and colleagues using the 2007 Office system to save their documents as a “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure the documents can be easily shared across platforms.
Note that the C|Net story was released in Dec. 2006, and the above interview with Roz was released in January of 2007. I'm not seeing a delay here.
What C|Net seems to be focusing on is this line from the Mac Mojo post:
There will be a delta between general availability of Win Office (January) and converters from MacBU (expected late March/early April.)
However, that's in the same post where they said they're going to have a public beta in Spring of 2007, and the final release after Office 2008 is out. So let's see. Conflicting information, but one is reiterated by the head of the Mac BU, and one is not. Which one do you believe? Why, this is C|Net after all, reporting on the issue 5-6 months later, when there's more facts than in December. Of course they go with whatever one creates the most dramaaaaaa.
By the way, on the same day as the Roz Ho interview, Microsoft announced that Office 2008 will be available in the second half of 2007.
Now, face it, C|Net is a dingaling collective when it comes to Mac news, so blaming them for being wrong is like blaming a dog for farting. It stinks, but what can you do? However, Mary Jo Foley? Her I expect to check a statement, and not just be part of the echo chamber that is the blogosphere. But since she didn't, here's a clue:
"As Scheduled" and "Delayed" are not in fact the same things. That would be why they have different meanings and spelling.
Christ, is the entire "blogosphere" coming down with Scobleosis?
Technorati Tags: Microsoft Mac BU, Fact - Checking, TEH STOOPUD
Posted by John C. Welch at 11:50 | Permalink
Comments
There seem to be a lot of confusion around this topic. Wether it is "as scheduled" or "delayed" really doesn't matter - the real problem here is that there is a huge demand for .docx to .doc conversions because of the lack of information and support for the new file format. More that 30.000 documents each month are converted over at http://www.docx2doc.com/ and the number of people in need of a quick online conversion to .doc is growing rapidly each week.
So, if you are stuck with an attachment you can't open, then head over to docx2doc.com and purchase unlimited conversion option for just $5. Sorry for the "spam", but there is a need for this service as long as an offline-conversion option is not available throught the mac (and windows) community.
Posted by: macuser | May 17, 2007 1:50 PM
Macuser, as long as it's a legit link, and because your comment applies to the topic at hand, at least somewhat, I'm not going to call it spam. If it helps someone, then thanks for the link and the info.
Posted by: John C. Welch | May 17, 2007 3:22 PM
Talking of apple related delays, have you seen this?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/17/regarding-yesterdays-apple-news/
Sounds like share-trading foul play to me (rather than the chinese whispers going on above).
Posted by: Tom Hillman | May 18, 2007 8:26 AM
Engadget, and probably a few people got played, it's happened before in the Main Stream Media. Engadget's attempts to explain away their fuckup as "not our fault, we were fooled, and Apple didn't jump to answer our phone calls" is, however, bullshit.
It is precisely BECAUSE this kind of thing has happened before, and BECAUSE email is so trivial to spoof that Engadget should have waited until they got confirmation from more than one source.
They're just trying to pass the buck right now.
Posted by: John C. Welch | May 18, 2007 12:17 PM
