Open Formats: What and Why
Anyone who hasn't been living in a hole for the last 15 years has heard of Microsoft, and knows of their products, such as Windows (95, 98, 2000, ME, XP), Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access), or perhaps some of their other products. Many people have their documents, music, and other files in Microsoft-specific formats. Likewise, people may have their files in special file formats for other major companies.
So when we talk about those formats, they are called "closed formats." This is because in the event that you lose access to your software that you have paid for, such as Office (which runs as high as $400 retail), you are effectively locked out of your files. This also means that transferring files between different versions of the same program, for instance taking a file saved in Word 2003 and opening it on Word 2000, there are likely to be compatibility issues.
The opposite is true of so-called "open formats." These formats are free for use and are fully documented and open. Any programmer can use these formats free of charge. Further, they adhere to strict standards so that compatibility between versions of software is not an issue (usually). Just the fact that no single company can drop support or change it means that no matter how far into the future you go, you should still be able to read your document in its original manner, and there should be a free tool to do so.
Microsoft vs. OpenDocument
Chances are that if you are tech-savvy enough, you know what .doc is. That's the current Word document format, dating to at least 1995. However, despite .doc having existed for a long time, it has seen many changes. If you open a document you made with Word 95 on today's Word 2003, it would likely look very different, although your text will be the same.
OpenDocument was developed in response to problems like these. It is a creation of Sun, who is responsible for the program known as OpenOffice.org, a free Office suite that performs many of the same functions as Microsoft Office. It is now managed by a board known as OASIS (and is commonly called the OASIS OpenDocument format), of which several companies, Microsoft included, are members.
OpenDocument uses a zip container to hold data. What this means is that when you look at a .odt file (OpenDocument Text), you could rename it .zip and look inside. The same is true of the other OpenDocument formats. You'll find any images or other content you use in your document, as well as the document itself in an easy-to-read XML format. This means that all the text is plainly readable, surrounded only with tags to indicate where each piece of text goes, its font, and so on. This method results in much smaller file sizes and makes it easy to view your documents for the necessary text, even if you do not have a program to read it with.
OpenDocument is supported by OpenOffice.org, obviously, along with several other less-known products such as AbiWord. Microsoft is also free to implement support for it in Office; however, has so far said they will refuse to do so.
Instead, Microsoft is going in a different direction. Starting in Office 12 (due out next year, most likely under a name like Office 2006 or Office Vista), Microsoft will save documents in their own XML-based format. However, this indicates that Microsoft software will be preferred for reading these documents. Other programs will have to pay to license the ability to read it, or will simply not work with it.
OpenDocument is being experimented with in several places, including the state of Massachusetts, which has stated that all documents produced after December 2006 by the state government must be in the OpenDocument format. This is so that people do not have to spend obscene amounts of money on the Microsoft software needed to read it.*
*Microsoft formats are supported by OpenOffice, but will often contain formatting errors, as it is not officially licensed from Microsoft.
MP3 vs. WMA vs. AAC vs. OGG Vorbis, and FLAC
Almost everyone knows what an MP3 is. MP3s are compressed audio files. Some people might not understand why open formats would be needed when it comes to music; MP3 support is free, right?
Well, not exactly. When you use it, someone is paying licensing fees for use of some patents on the MP3 format. In addition, MP3 is a relatively old format, and as such there are better methods of compression these days. This alone should make it clear that MP3 is an outdated choice.
The biggest flaw, according to the music industry, is the lack of DRM. I explained what DRM is in the last column, and MP3 does not contain any. In response, Microsoft created Windows Media Audio format, or WMA. While it is free and has better compression than MP3, it also has some pretty strong DRM. You are restricted on where it can be played. It is still not supported outside of Windows and does not work with the iPod, though it IS supported on a number of other media players.
AAC is the other competitor. Apple uses a modified form of AAC for its iPod and iTunes (for DRM purposes), but again, this one demands royalties, just like MP3, to Dolby Labs. It also sounds much better than MP3, but once again, support for it is dismal, especially on portable media players, though it is supported on the iPod.
The other two formats, OGG Vorbis and FLAC, are open formats and are therefore free. OGG Vorbis is seeing more support in recent years among non-Apple audio players, and according to many sounds the best of the four compressed audio formats. Because it is completely free, you never have to worry about having to pay for the software needed to run it, although you may need to locate a new portable media device if you want to listen to them on the go.
FLAC is different from all these other formats. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, meaning that FLAC merely compresses blank areas, leaving all the rest of the original information intact. Audiophiles in particular tend to like this format, as it saves disk space without sacrificing audio quality. Regardless, for the average person this is probably overkill and does result in much larger file sizes.
While MP3 is the established standard, there are several media formats in use, and the open ones are the ones that can be counted on to always be listenable on computers, due to documented standards.
So when we talk about those formats, they are called "closed formats." This is because in the event that you lose access to your software that you have paid for, such as Office (which runs as high as $400 retail), you are effectively locked out of your files. This also means that transferring files between different versions of the same program, for instance taking a file saved in Word 2003 and opening it on Word 2000, there are likely to be compatibility issues.
The opposite is true of so-called "open formats." These formats are free for use and are fully documented and open. Any programmer can use these formats free of charge. Further, they adhere to strict standards so that compatibility between versions of software is not an issue (usually). Just the fact that no single company can drop support or change it means that no matter how far into the future you go, you should still be able to read your document in its original manner, and there should be a free tool to do so.
Microsoft vs. OpenDocument
Chances are that if you are tech-savvy enough, you know what .doc is. That's the current Word document format, dating to at least 1995. However, despite .doc having existed for a long time, it has seen many changes. If you open a document you made with Word 95 on today's Word 2003, it would likely look very different, although your text will be the same.
OpenDocument was developed in response to problems like these. It is a creation of Sun, who is responsible for the program known as OpenOffice.org, a free Office suite that performs many of the same functions as Microsoft Office. It is now managed by a board known as OASIS (and is commonly called the OASIS OpenDocument format), of which several companies, Microsoft included, are members.
OpenDocument uses a zip container to hold data. What this means is that when you look at a .odt file (OpenDocument Text), you could rename it .zip and look inside. The same is true of the other OpenDocument formats. You'll find any images or other content you use in your document, as well as the document itself in an easy-to-read XML format. This means that all the text is plainly readable, surrounded only with tags to indicate where each piece of text goes, its font, and so on. This method results in much smaller file sizes and makes it easy to view your documents for the necessary text, even if you do not have a program to read it with.
OpenDocument is supported by OpenOffice.org, obviously, along with several other less-known products such as AbiWord. Microsoft is also free to implement support for it in Office; however, has so far said they will refuse to do so.
Instead, Microsoft is going in a different direction. Starting in Office 12 (due out next year, most likely under a name like Office 2006 or Office Vista), Microsoft will save documents in their own XML-based format. However, this indicates that Microsoft software will be preferred for reading these documents. Other programs will have to pay to license the ability to read it, or will simply not work with it.
OpenDocument is being experimented with in several places, including the state of Massachusetts, which has stated that all documents produced after December 2006 by the state government must be in the OpenDocument format. This is so that people do not have to spend obscene amounts of money on the Microsoft software needed to read it.*
*Microsoft formats are supported by OpenOffice, but will often contain formatting errors, as it is not officially licensed from Microsoft.
MP3 vs. WMA vs. AAC vs. OGG Vorbis, and FLAC
Almost everyone knows what an MP3 is. MP3s are compressed audio files. Some people might not understand why open formats would be needed when it comes to music; MP3 support is free, right?
Well, not exactly. When you use it, someone is paying licensing fees for use of some patents on the MP3 format. In addition, MP3 is a relatively old format, and as such there are better methods of compression these days. This alone should make it clear that MP3 is an outdated choice.
The biggest flaw, according to the music industry, is the lack of DRM. I explained what DRM is in the last column, and MP3 does not contain any. In response, Microsoft created Windows Media Audio format, or WMA. While it is free and has better compression than MP3, it also has some pretty strong DRM. You are restricted on where it can be played. It is still not supported outside of Windows and does not work with the iPod, though it IS supported on a number of other media players.
AAC is the other competitor. Apple uses a modified form of AAC for its iPod and iTunes (for DRM purposes), but again, this one demands royalties, just like MP3, to Dolby Labs. It also sounds much better than MP3, but once again, support for it is dismal, especially on portable media players, though it is supported on the iPod.
The other two formats, OGG Vorbis and FLAC, are open formats and are therefore free. OGG Vorbis is seeing more support in recent years among non-Apple audio players, and according to many sounds the best of the four compressed audio formats. Because it is completely free, you never have to worry about having to pay for the software needed to run it, although you may need to locate a new portable media device if you want to listen to them on the go.
FLAC is different from all these other formats. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, meaning that FLAC merely compresses blank areas, leaving all the rest of the original information intact. Audiophiles in particular tend to like this format, as it saves disk space without sacrificing audio quality. Regardless, for the average person this is probably overkill and does result in much larger file sizes.
While MP3 is the established standard, there are several media formats in use, and the open ones are the ones that can be counted on to always be listenable on computers, due to documented standards.
posted by Trip @ 6:00 PM
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