Quick Mention: Microsoft is Hijacking ODF
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-10-02 14:20:24 UTC
- Modified: 2008-10-02 14:20:24 UTC
So we were right
all along. Details
in Groklaw:
Guess what the SC 34 committee, the ISO/IEC committee responsible for OOXML, is up to now? I call it a takeover attempt of ODF, according to my reading of the published notes of the most recent meeting held yesterday, October 1st, and starring a document titled "Request to JTC 1 for alignment of OASIS and JTC 1 Maintenance Procedures." Uh oh. That sounds polite, but it is what it is. An attempted coup. They have already sent a "Liaison Statement" to OASIS. Surrender or else, what? SC 34 asks JTC 1 "to establish with OASIS a synchronised mechanism for maintenance of ISO/IEC 26300 and to inform SC 34 of the outcome." I gather they think they can do a better job of maintaining ODF than OASIS. What will JTC 1 do, do you think? You doubt they will hop on to this wonderful plan?
I gather the hope is, if the takeover were to succeed, that SC 34 would get to maintain ODF as well as Microsoft's competing parody "standard," OOXML. How totally smooth and shark-like. Under the guise of "synchronised maintenance", without which they claim SC 34 can't fulfill its responsibilities, they get control of everything. So utterly Microsoft. Microsoft yearns for interoperability, it seems. More like yearning for ODF's air supply to be ... well, you know.
[...]
Why do I say Microsoft, when this is SC 34? Look at this, will you? It has a list of participants in the July meeting in Japan of the SC 34 committee. The committee membership is so tilted by Microsoft employees and such, if it were a boat, it would capsize. In fact, I'd say it already has. Of the 19 attendees, 8 are outright Microsoft employees or consultants, and 2 of them are Ecma TC45 members. So 10 out of 19 are directly controlled by Microsoft/Ecma.
[...]
Mr. Durusau, Mr. Brown, and all you guys, listen up, please. That isn't the goal. Microsoft being "more open" isn't the appropriate end goal. If it's your goal, you have utterly failed. The goal is a standard that anyone can use equally, a truly open standard, available to both proprietary folks and FOSS. Microsoft being "more open" but not really fully interoperable and always a little bit ahead of everyone else in its ability to use a "standard" is by no means enough. We've lived in that kind of Microsoft world a long time now. We don't need "standards" that replicate it.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The CIA-Funded Centre-Left in Portugal
- In the political turmoil which followed the fall of the old regime, the communists seemed to be acquiring a dominant position and there was a very real risk that Portugal could end up aligned with the Eastern Bloc if they were not stopped
- Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published a Fake Article That Says "AI" 31 Times Because It Got Paid to Do This
- What will happen when all those loans for slop (Ponzi scheme) stop and companies' marketing budgets - which include media bribes for hype campaigns - are no more?
- Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
- We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Brotherhood of São Bento
- The Palácio São Bento – or São Bento Palace – is the seat of the Portuguese National Assembly in Lisbon
-
- Cannot Speak About IBM Wrongdoing or Jobs Being Sent Overseas (Lower Salaries)
- IBM has long attacked the media, the whistleblowers, and even online forums
- This Coming Friday
- Richard Stallman (RMS)
- Several Slopfarms That Target "Linux" Seem to Have Died
- Or perished severely
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 08, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, June 08, 2026
- Gemini Links 09/06/2026: Tanana River, Cassette Beasts, and Emacs
- Links for the day
- IBM's Quantum Bubble Already Deflating
- Shares down over $55 in a few days
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 101 Out of 200: Women Come to Realise They Don't Wish to Participate in Attacking Vulnerable Women
- It relates to another topic that we shall be covering in the coming weeks
- Links 08/06/2026: Proprietary Loaded With Security Holes, Armenia Defies Russia
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 08/06/2026: NetHack 5.0.0 and Slop as Cannibalism
- Links for the day
- Links 08/06/2026: "Rising Emissions, Depleting Water" Due to the Pyramid Scheme of Slop; "Canada Needs to Rebuild Public Telecoms"
- Links for the day
- Brett Wilson LLP Reported to Police for Trying to Throw Large Parcel Into Our Home
- This morning the campaign of intimidation...
- GAFAM Bots Are Not "Good Bots"
- There's nothing "Good" about Google
- Links 08/06/2026: Criticism of Microsoft Trying to Criminalise Pointing Out Bug Doors, TikTok Now "Climate-Denying Social Media App"
- Links for the day
- Slop Has no ROI, an Economy Built on False Assumptions of Slop is Doomed
- we're all going to suffer from this Ponzi scheme
- The Cyber Show Has "Exciting Guests Coming" and a Gemini Capsule
- "Site development is ongoing but now settling into a more stable form"
- GNU/Linux Measured at 10% in Liechtenstein This Month
- it seems like statCounter wrongly classified some GNU/Linux clients as Mac clients and is now issuing a correction
- Communicating With Freedom - Part III - Quibble Envisioned as a New and Easily Accessible Communications Platform Based on LibreJS
- the FSF really needs to become more active if not proactive in promoting those sorts of things
- Clownflare Says Majority of Web Traffic is Now Bots, But the Net is Another Story
- Bots are to Clownflare what lawsuits are to lawyers
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 07, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, June 07, 2026
- The Strikes at the European Patent Office Planned to Carry on for the Entire Year, Maybe Future Years as Well
- There's a cautionary tale somewhere
- Number of Patent Grants Has Plunged 23% Amid Strikes at the European Patent Office, Today There Are More Strikes (Strike Participation at Over 3,000, More Than Doubled Since Winter)
- There is a growing crisis at the European Patent Office
- E.E.E. Still Ongoing, the War on Copyleft/GPL Enables That
- It also imperils security.
- Gemini Links 07/06/2026: Lynx in the 'Modern' Web and 'Overcooked' (Plagiarised by LLM) Code
- Links for the day
- Links 07/06/2026: Java Needs Seawall, Egypt Blasted for Arbitrary Detention of Activists
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 100 Out of 200: Interlude and Outline of the First Half, 3+ Months That Got Us Death Threats Connected to Brett Wilson LLP (and Cyber Attacks That Are Difficult to Attribute)
- This week we plan to have a good time
- Banning Things Versus Teaching People the Reason/s to Shun/Boycott Those Things
- Prohibition has its limits
- Links 07/06/2026: NASA's Mars Maven Declared Dead, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Bemoans Russia's Crackdown
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 06, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, June 06, 2026
- Gemini Links 07/06/2026: How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and "Six Days of Play"
- Links for the day