Bonum Certa Men Certa

OOXML: Deception, Lies, FUD, Apple & Germany Become Microsoft Tools

Germany Has Been 'Corrupted' by Microsoft



A couple of days ago, the press heralded that Germany would approve fast-tracking of OOXML. Right now, once the complete story comes to light, the press seems uninterested. We have seen this before. None of us truly expected the vote in Germany to be made calmly. Our suspicions were indeed justified. Groklaw has compiled and published some of the stories which the "big press" won't bring to the attention of a wider audience.

It looks like Germany is the new Portugal, actually. You do remember how in Portugal IBM and Sun were not allowed in the room because it was allegedly "too small" despite having empty chairs? Well, in Germany, Google and Deutsche Telekom were allowed in the room but were not allowed to vote, heise says.


It is truly amazing, yet by no means surprising.

Apple Goes Batting for OOXML



Recall what we said previously about Apple. It is among those that combat ODF. Microsoft is conveniently using Apple as a negotiation card in their 'political' debating technique (it turns technical discussions into political ones). Not only is the trial version of iWorks OOXML-deficient, but on the face of it, the whole software is lacking and thus Microsoft's argument is void.

When Apple released iWork '08, the Microsoft bloggers immediately jumped in to comment on how this is proof that MSOOXML is easily implementable by third parties. First of all, we need to realise that Apple sits in the Technical Committee at Ecma which "developed" this so called standard. So we should not be surprised at all if they have support of this file format in their upcoming products including the iPhone.

What is not said however, and I have been waiting for days for a response from Microsoft's Stephen McGibbon, is why Apple does NOT really support MSOOXML....

And it gets more interesting. The Cybertech Rambler has taken some time out to review the file formats in iWork '08. ...He also confirms what the Microsofties refuse to confirm: "on closer reading of iWorks website and documentation, it appears that iWorks can only read OOXML file but cannot write it. That’s a pity."


Correcting Microsoft Disinformation



The lies and deception, which we mention time and time again, is apparently here to stay. All one can do it rebut. Here is some of the latest:

I think it is important to correct the false - or maybe misquoted - statements by Vijay Kapoor, national technology officer of Microsoft India that I found in this interview under the question "Why does Microsoft want another standard, what's the rationale?". Microsoft starts the reply with "There are at least 4 good reasons why:" and then states the first reason.

[...]

Thus, all in all, the arguments provided by Microsoft in the interview don't seem to be valid.


Bob Sutor needed to make another important clarification after some false claims had been made.

...Unless, of course, Microsoft = OOXML as far as ECMA is concerned. If this is the case, I would like to hear this from ECMA because it would simplify matters.


Google a Possible Victim of FUD, Speaks Out About OOXML



A few days, the Burton Group published what seems like an anti-Google Apps 'study' (danger to one's career). I was unable to find evidence that Microsoft was a sponsor, but in any event, Google is no friend to OOXML [PDF].

Google is concerned about the potential adoption of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format as an ISO standard.


This 3-page document says a lot about Google's concern. At the same time, Microsoft is concerned about the rising popularity of Web-based Office suite applications, such as Google's. There was an admission of this in a recent conference.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete
 
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Links 26/10/2025: Microsoft Spies on Gamers, Open Transport Community Conference
Links for the day
Links 26/10/2025: LLM Slop / Plagiarism Programs Continue to Disappoint, CISA Layoffs Threaten Systems
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/10/2025: Gemsync and Joining the Small Web
Links for the day
India.com a Click-baiting, SEO-Spamming, Slopfarming Heap
They do this almost every day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 25, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 25, 2025
Without XBox Consoles, XBox is No More, It's Just a Brand (More Rumours of Microsoft Ending XBox, Then Laying Off Lots of Staff)
All signs indicate that Microsoft wants to "exit" the XBox business (not brand), but it does not want to publicly admit this as it would alarm staff and shareholders