Microsoft to ODF Technical Committee: Come Enter the Belly of the Beast

[praka123]

at 12:39 pm by Roy Schestowitz


Microsoft is trying to grab control of ODF
To some it was predictable [1, 2, 3] and to some it was not. Regardless: Microsoft Corporation, the company that actively fought ODF and force-forced an proprietary alternative like nothing less than a deranged criminal who knows no boundaries, is suddenly inviting all people behind ODF to ‘pull a Patrick Durusau’ and come to Microsoft’s turf.
The apprehensive reaction from Charles is very telling:

Thank you for this invitation. I have to say I have some trouble understanding why you would like to gather the OASIS TC in Redmond. It seems to me a bit cumbersome, and a bit bizarre to invite everyone here in Redmond as if nothing had ever happened before. Perhaps, as some would put it, “it’s a bit too early for that”. Besides, I’m sure we can have that event anywhere else . As you may know, the OASIS ODF TC (together with its subcommittees and the OASIS ODF Adoption TC) runs several panels and conferences worldwide. The next one, if I am not mistaken, will take place in Beijing during the ODF Track at the OpenOffice.org Conference. It is scheduled to take place around October-November 2008.
This ODF track is independent from the OpenOffice.org Conference as several different and competing vendors attend this conference track. We would really appreciate to have you and the Microsoft Office team
there.

Watch what Erwin says just before his departure.

Maybe this invitation has something to do with Microsoft’s public “ODF has clearly won” statement at a recent event. Thus, if Microsoft has to support ODF in their products due to market demand, what ISV can still ignore supporting ODF? I guess none! Anyway, OpenOffice.org is just one implementation of ODF and is facing more than 1.2M downloads per week (!!!) on average (since the beginning of 2008) with most recent download numbers having been close to 2M.
​

It’s figures like that which help Microsoft see what’s coming. It’s a matter of critical mass. Reasons for this new strategy are also related to new stories like this one.

Most Danish companies are actually trying to find an alternative to MS Office at the moment.
​

Microsoft can see that OOXML will not be adopted by everyone, so it’s trying to ensure it can butter its toast on both sides and control all committees. Will it stick?
If this sounds familiar, it ought to. Microsoft plays exactly the same card in order to gain control over “Open Source”, having slammed and daemonised it for years. It seems as though it wants to seize as much control as possible over ODF (for self-beneficial purposes of course, even if that means derailing it).

“If this unethical behaviour by Microsoft was not sufficiently despicable, they did the unthinkable by involving politics in what should have been a technical evaluation of the standard by writing to the head of the Malaysian standards organization and getting its business partners to engage in a negative letter writing campaign to indicate lack of support of ODF in the Malaysian market. Every single negative letter on ODF received by the Malaysian standards organization was written either by Microsoft, or a Microsoft business partner or a Microsoft affiliated organization (Initiative for Software Choice and IASA).“

source:
*boycottnovell.com/2008/06/23/odf-belly-of-beast/

 

[Pat]

So lets see how the picture is :

1. Microsoft fights against ODF
2. OOXML wins (somehow)
3. MS announces support for ODF and not for OOXML in their next Office release
4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war
5. Now they call for help from ODF people

Way to go MS

 

[infra_red_dude]

So lets see how the picture is :

1. Microsoft fights against ODF
2. OOXML wins (somehow)
3. MS announces support for ODF and not for OOXML in their next Office release
4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war
5. Now they call for help from ODF people

Way to go MS

Now lets look into this:

Cigarette is bad for health...but it attracts people towards itself.. If people go to it.. I'd blame them instead of the cigarette!

 

[praka123]

cigaratte= M$

 

[hellknight]

Hey hey, instead of cigrattte,
Marijuana=M$

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ lol...MS isn't that bad!

 

[iMav]

4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war

Could you link me to the press release that says so?

MS damned if they do, damned if they don't. Support ODF, oh look they are supporting ODF, if they don't MS is monopolistic, they are only supporting OOXML, that is why we were saying don't make OOXML as standard

 

[MetalheadGautham]

In my opinion, supporting ODF and not OOXML is the best damn thing microsoft has ever done since redefining PCs back in 1980s.

Lets see... this makes all office suites follow the same standard, and MS gets a chance to prove that its office suite is still better.

at the same time, it also ensures that people using OpenOffice, StarOffice, iOffice and KOffice are not affected. Thats because the same completely doccumented open standard can be used by each and every person in the world.

 

[Pat]

Could you link me to the press release that says so?

If only they were honest enough to hold a press conference..However here you go:

*www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/19/Red_Hat_Summit_panel_Who_won_OOXML_battle_1.html

MS damned if they do, damned if they don't. Support ODF, oh look they are supporting ODF, if they don't MS is monopolistic, they are only supporting OOXML, that is why we were saying don't make OOXML as standard

Wow..First they fight using all unethical means possible and make their OOXML as ISO standard and then they dont implement support for the same in their next release. Not only this, they actually implement support for the rival file format.How cool is that ?

Its not supporting ODF that we have a problem with, its fighting a war and winning (u know how) and then not implementing the very cause of the war.

 

[iMav]

on basis of a InfoWorld link and a quote by an MS employee you say it won There was a MS employee who once said that if he weren't at MS he would be using a Mac. Big deal if that is the basis of you saying MS said ODF won, God help you

MS never said that they will be implementing OOXML immediately, OOXML standards have elements already implemented in Office 2k7 The are coming out with a new Office version soon and it makes complete business sense to implement newer features in that release. Rival format? Only during the ISO acceptance, doesn't mean that they consider it a worthless format. ODF has it's advantages and OOo and other office suites support it. MS as a matter of fact decided to make your lives easier and you start cursing it for that. It's true MS: damned if they do, damned if they don't.

 

[Pat]

on basis of a InfoWorld link and a quote by an MS employee you say it won There was a MS employee who once said that if he weren't at MS he would be using a Mac. Big deal if that is the basis of you saying MS said ODF won, God help you

If this is how Microsoft's Technical Officer is, then God help MS and you too
Btw, are all MS employees as stupid as their Technical Officer ? You might be knowing better

 

[chandru.in]

If MS is going to give full implementation of ODF , it is good. If they contribute to the improvement of ODF as a document standard, it is better.

If they start providing proprietary hooks to ODF and give a MS's own ODF implementation (they tried it with Java and were humiliated by Sun), then that would prove MS will never grow up.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

If MS is going to give full implementation of ODF , it is good. If they contribute to the improvement of ODF as a document standard, it is better.

If they start providing proprietary hooks to ODF and give a MS's own ODF implementation (they tried it with Java and were humiliated by Sun), then that would prove MS will never grow up.

+1

Infact, I KNOW MS is going to have atleast *some* word exclusive extentions for ODT.

 

[chandru.in]

Infact, I KNOW MS is going to have atleast *some* word exclusive extentions for ODT.

Same guess here. MS rarely plays by rule. Esp in a market where they have a monopoly already (Office suite market), I doubt they will ever play a fair game.

I guess ODF implementation is just another of MS's EEE strategies.

 

[Garbage]

M$ is providing support for ODF in Office 2007 SP2.
Why they think, they MUST provide it beside it's own proprietary OOXML??

All knows how M$ got their OOXML as ISO standard. Many countries are promoted to "p-level" from "O-level"... After voting is over, they again dropped to "O-level"..

 

[sourav123]

^^But surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), no MS fanboy or MVP in this forum says an word about how MS won the OOXML standard.

 

[praka123]

^yeah LOL! see ,here it is M$'s strategy again. when every trick failed ,they want to "buy" ODF! pathetic

 

[iMav]

^^But surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), no MS fanboy or MVP in this forum says an word about how MS won the OOXML standard.

They won it fair & square India's top technology companies voted for it. unless off course you feel that Infosys & others are companies that have ruined India, then well there's nothing to talk about.

 

[Garbage]

They won it fair & square

OMG... Ever heard of what M$ does to make it ISO ??? lol... fair...

 

[CadCrazy]

iMav Agar 10 log milkar tumhe chor bolna shuru kar de to kya tum chor ban jaoge