06.29.07
ECMA, Microsoft, and Linspire-sponsored Mail Give More Reasons to Give the Boot (Updated)
Andy Updegrove has some nasty new details to share with his readers. On the face of it, all the negative speculations are now being confirmed.
…it indicates a desire by Microsoft to institutionalize and expand a perpetual, standardized environment that would surround a single vendor’s products. This would inevitably serve, as Microsoft would of course intend, to extend its monopoly position into the indefinite future. The result would be to continue to stifle innovation and competition at the office productivity suite product level as well (consider the flowering of diverse products that have sprung up since ODF gave hope of actual competition to multiple proprietary and open source ISVs). Microsoft has stated before that the submission of OOXML to Ecma did not mean that anyone could clone Office without being sued for infringement – just that it would be easier for people to work with it. No such flowering will ever likely exist around OOXML, given Microsoft’s enormous lead in products based upon that format.
Remember some of the most recent developments. Microsoft’s deals with Linux vendors have them support these actions. They have to. There is a contract. Never mind the fact that Microsoft lies and deceives. Never mind that it wants to protect its monopoly from Free software. It is not surprising that Linux users disengage their relationships with Linux companies that joined hands with Microsoft.
Update: there is more on this subject here. On the face of it, OOXML was only the beginning. Microsoft’s plan is to control and ‘extend’ replacements for PDF, JPEG, Flash, and probably HTML as we know it. Patents will even allow Microsoft to sue or to tax those that ‘dare’ to implement software supporting those ‘standards’, which are the work of just a single company that never sought consensus.
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