06.13.07
Malaysia Wants a Truly Open Document Format and So Does New York State
OpenDocument format (ODF) is going strong. There is some encouraging news that contrasts some recent setbacks. In Malaysia, for example, people seem to have taken a careful look at Sam Hiser’s excellent analysis which — to put it one way — explains why Xandors and Novell committed themselves to a route leading to insanity.
Mr. Alan Bryden said that ISO will not approve two standards in the same area and ISO has its own “consensus” process to ensure that. Into this consensus process, Malaysia should give input that ODF is the single standard Malaysia needs and the single standard ISO needs.
Recall what Malaysian representative/witnesses had to say several weeks ago.
In New York, the first steps have just been taken towards adoption of ODF. IBM has strong presence in this state, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.
The New York state politician backing a bill that would order the state to examine a switch to open document formats for official business said Friday that she is optimistic her bill will escape the fate of similar bills in five other states.
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.