07.31.07
Microsoft Continues to Cheat in the ISO
To bring you up to date, here are some of the latest stories which appear elsewhere.
Yesterday we mentioned flipping of votes which apparently relied on subtle manipulation.
I’ve heard several reports of supporters of OOXML trying to get national standards bodies to change their votes from “NO with comments” to “YES with comments” because “it’s the same thing.” The logic, which I’ll explain in a later post, is that any comments will trigger a ballot resolution meeting, so there is no need to be so negative and vote NO.
Some hour ago, a translation from a Groklaw reader showed up. It brought some news from Portugal.
Portugal: Votes Yes with Comments on OOXML
Commitee presided over by Microsoft decides in it’s favor 13-7:
It’s with much disgust that I see that after an initial membership controlled by Microsoft of 7 to 1, it was only possible to add the participation of 12 more entities, 6 in favor of open standards, and 6 in favor of Microsoft.
If from the the first meeting it was clear that there was a favorable support for Microsoft of 7 to 1, the voting just an hour ago of YES WITH COMMENTS is sadly revealing.
This is not the first time that we observe ‘funny’ OOXML maneuvers in Portugal. We covered this in the past on numerous occasions.
Bob Sutor says that regardless of the outcome, OOXML will not become an ISO/IEC standard this year and therefore no-one should consider it as part of a strategy in the enterprise.
Even though the JTC1 ballot closes on September 2 on Microsoft’s product description for Microsoft Office, namely OOXML or DIS 29500, this will not become an ISO/IEC standard in 2007.
Microsoft continues its “Open Source” charade, which probably fools quite a few people. There is also an invitation for questions.
Here’s an event you might like to know about. 4Linux in Brazil has a live podcast show and the next theme is “Microsoft, Open source e Interoperabilidade com OpenXML”. I bet you can figure it out even if, like me, you don’t know Portuguese. Yes, a show about Microsoft, Open Source and “interoperability” with OpenXML.
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.