05.23.07
Malaysia looks at OOXML (and it doesn’t like what it sees)
Under increasing pressure, as small shops begin to preinstall OpenOffice.org, Microsoft steps up to have a 6039-page specification ratified as an international standard. As we said the other day, countries are not pleased with the huge stacks of paper. There are some more breaktaking photos in this new item, and also some interesting perspective which reveals a trick.
It is therefore clear that the interest of Malaysians of consumers can be summarised by the demand: “One Standard, Multiple Apps”.
What is interesting is how this issue is being played up. Instead on concentrating on the technical issues regarding the specification tow hich there are many, Microsoft is politicising it by claiming unfairness in the process, naming IBM as the alleged oppressor to MSOOXML.
This is probably the reason why Microsoft continually seems to be sending non-technical people (to Malaysia and Czech ) to these workshops probably to try to convince us of the merits of the specification not on a technical level, but on a “political” level.
Being a “policial battle”, it seems clear whose side Novell has chosen. This does not help anybody, except for the monopoly abuser.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Yoon Kit said,
May 24, 2007 at 5:27 am
Although Novell and Apple sit in the MSOOXML TC45 at Ecma and provide “support” in creating translators to and from ODF, I dont see them adopting MSOOXML as a native file format.
MSOOXML may have supporters but they dont have the their “contributors” adopting it. Compare that with OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, Novell OpenOffice.org (same codebase, but 3 different “distributors”) and KOffice. ODF is used as a NATIVE file format. By default. Abiword is working towards it. Im not sure what IBM would be going with its Lotus / Workplace products, but it wouldnt be surprising if they too have the option to allow ODF as their native file formats.
Even Microsoft dissuades its users in using MSOOXML for Excel spreadsheets.
yk.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 24, 2007 at 6:12 am
Google Apps and Lotus will be using ODF, at least as an option. IBM stated this months ago and Google joined the ODF Alliance not so long ago. It then began working with Sun on document compatibility.