● 12.03.08
●● Quick Mention: Novell is Helping Microsoft OOXML Again
Posted in Formats, Microsoft, Novell, Open XML at 9:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Well, Microsoft paid Novell a lot of money to have headlines like this pushed into ZDNet and for dead proprietary formats to float with Novell's endorsement.
Microsoft boosts OOXML compatibility
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The enhancements came out of the Document Interoperability Initiative (DII), a working group set up in March between Microsoft and companies such as Novell, QuickOffice and Dataviz. The object of the DII was to boost the interoperability between Office Open XML (OOXML) and rival XML-based document formats such as the open-source OpenDocument Format (ODF), which was already a ratified ISO standard.
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John McCreesh, an evangelist for OpenOffice.org, the main open-source competitor to the Microsoft Office productivity suite, told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that he was surprised to hear Microsoft was continuing to work on OOXML’s compatibility.
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“The feeling had been that OOXML was dead in the water, so it’s interesting to see that Microsoft is still trying to revive it in the marketplace,” said McCreesh. “The response in the marketplace [to OOXML] hasn’t been that encouraging, but they’ve clearly decided it’s worth another push.”
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The passage of OOXML through its International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ratification process attracted criticism from many observers and national standards body members. Some national standards bodies objected to Microsoft’s perceived tactics in getting OOXML ratified, while arguing that there was no need for a second XML standard after ODF.
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The author, David Meyer, ought to have gone further and shared the stories of corruption behind OOXML. Being shy about crime makes one’s job safer, but it doesn’t make decent reporting. █
“Microsoft corrupted many members of ISO in order to win approval for its phony ‘open’ document format, OOXML. This was so governments that keep their documents in a Microsoft-only format can pretend that they are using ‘open standards.’ The government of South Africa has filed an appeal against the decision, citing the irregularities in the process.”
–Richard Stallman
“The ISO process, brutal and corrupt as it was, has been covered to death by everyone.”
–Tim Bray
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