09.17.07
OOXML Vote in Russia Overwhelmed by Scale and Pressure (Updated)
“In Soviet Russia, OOXML votes for expert” (origin of this type of humour)
If Sweden’s vote on OOXML could be bought (bribery), then any country was virtually up for sale. Although it’s a bit late now, details have just arrived from Russia. It voted blindly and it voted “Yes”. Here is a fragment of text extracted from an article which reached the Russian press:
CNews found out the Russian Technical Committee Information Technology, which was to study OpenXML, did not cope with the task in time and handed down no expert opinion. Askold Piavchenko, the Russian Technical Committee Information Technology Chairman tells CNews “they were to speed up OpenXML study, so 6 thousand pages were to be studied in half a year”.
Rob Weir has warned about this. He suggested that a large pile of paper would discourage critique, which can be described as nitpicking (and thus dismissed) given the scale and complexity of this set of specifications. Moreover, Rob told us that Microsoft lied to committees about key dates. This way, less time was left for judgment ans accumulation of comment before the final vote was due.
No wonder everyone dislikes this “superb standard”, which others are simply paid to support.
Update: this is becoming obnoxious. Microsoft is now pressuring journalists to write something nice about OOXML. Spotted minutes ago:
Microsoft expressed disappointment at our views and said “a better story” would have been the positive benefits OpenXML…
The Microsoft PR agents are clearly at it again. They are still trying to make a Windows-only proprietary format seem like something that it is not. Hey, Microsoft, leave the journalists alone.
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.