Bonum Certa Men Certa

OOXML Watch: Latest Stories of Deception, Corruption, and Disapproval

Just when you think that you have seen the ugliest stories, more of them seem to be arriving (in large volumes at the moment). Here is a quick overview with very little commentary.

From New Zealand:

He says claims that Open XML is a vehicle for protecting old binary formatted documents, the focus of Microsoft's newspaper advertising yesterday, are also false.


This is not the first time that we see newspapers being used for deception or spin.

Comment of interest:

"Microsoft's Brian Jones, sums it up best. The OOXML ECMA spec is not finished yet."

And another:

"Those whores will probably never be seen at a standards meeting again, unless Microsoft has another proprietary standard they want to foist onto the public as 'open'."

And another:

"If they let this sort of manipulation take place without pulling the plug on fast tracking OOXML, it will prove just how inadequet the hole process is and how little it means. ISO will become WORTHLESS."

And another:

"It is a case of a blatant exercise of monopolistic powers and monetary clout. If ISO crumbles under such an underhand onslaught it must surely cease to be a body with any meaning and purpose."

The comments are pretty much the same in all the forums.

Microsoft is said to have just 'pulled a Sweden' in Uruguay. This new petition for UK National Archives does not seem to have people aware of the fact that National Archives is itself run by a Microsoft employee (talk about conflict of interests).

BetaNews writes about the mad events in the Nordic states.

"This is how a standard is bought," Bosson wrote later. "I left the meeting in protest - pissed off."


There is already an article about this (in Swedish) and more information in Groklaw conversations.

He acknowledges that the rules might need to be changed.


Here are some more articles of interest:

The OOXML Problem

Another thing, by introducing a "new fancy" document format, MS can hold a tighter grip round existing customers and get more on the false pretence that they've "opened up".


Linux Foundation Releases Statement Calling for National Bodies to Vote "No" on OOXML

Perhaps enough National Bodies will heed the call of the Linux Foundation to draw a line in the sand, here and now, and even at this eleventh hour, and stop the juggernaut of abuse before it drives the system totally over the cliff.


Rejecting OOXML

All the CIOs say they want is XML documents; unfortunately they aren't as aware as Georg Greve, above, that Microsoft's implementation of XML is exceedingly half-hearted.


Remember the man who was paid by Microsoft to mess about with Wikipedia's article on OOXML? In what appears to me like a stunt he said he would vote "No".

Vote “No”? But aren’t I supposed to be Microsoft’s biggest fanboy? Well, what I mean is a conditional approval, not a rejection.


It seems like a plot which says that "no" votes are actually a "yes, with comments". Bob Sutor warned about such ugly spin.

I’ve heard several reports of supporters of OOXML trying to get national standards bodies to change their votes from “NO with comments” to “YES with comments” because “it’s the same thing.” The logic, which I’ll explain in a later post, is that any comments will trigger a ballot resolution meeting, so there is no need to be so negative and vote NO.


Ecma has clearly lost its reputation and here is more evidence.

Ecma is shepherding Open XML, the default format used by Office 2007 documents, through ISO's traditionally difficult approval process.


To close this post on a brighter note, here's a new article on Malaysia's choice of ODF.

ODF, an international standard, is an open standard for any vendor to implement without restrictions.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day