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
- IBM Firings (or Silent Layoffs) After Bluewashing; "IBM’s Employment History is More Troubling Than its Patriotic Marketing Suggests"
- "It has zip to do with race but everything to do with the greed of the 1% who have been doing all they can to destroy the middle class..."
- “Week van de Werkstress” and Work-Related Stress at the EPO, Where Staff is Bullied Into Granting Illegal Patents for Foreign Monopolists
- "poor working environments, including discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control and job insecurity pose a risk to mental health"
- Czech Republic: GNU/Linux Rises Above 5% in Desktops and Laptops
- A year ago it was somewhere around 4%
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXII - Running One's Mouth
- British Police told me "making a false complaint to police is a crime" in relation to Lozza
-
- Gemini Links 08/11/2026: "Before Sunrise" and LLM Scrapers Versus Self-Hosting (or Web in General)
- Links for the day
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXIII - Weaponising Cops in Another Continent (Europe), Knowing They Cannot Come to Your Home in America, While Threatening Women
- This year it culminated in death threats
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 07, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, November 07, 2026
- The Decade Ahead, a Decade of Suppressed Stories
- Our stories aren't discouraged or considered taboo because of racism or "toxic politics" or anything like that; they just hurt powerful people and corporations
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part V - "Reports Closed Without the Evidence Being Examined."
- Totally what the SRA did regarding Brett Wilson LLP
- Gemini Links 07/11/2026: Illusion Garden and Lagrange 2
- Links for the day
- Complexity is the Tyrant's Friend
- Slop is for feeble minds and cheaters
- EPO's Local Staff Committee The Hague Says Almost or About a Third of Staff Assembled to Organise at "a Time of Continued Social Unrest"
- They speak of "circa 850 staff members in attendance" (in The Netherlands there are about a couple thousand)
- Suggestions That XBox Will be Offloaded by Microsoft, Rather Than Shut Down, Make the False Assumption XBox is Profitable (It's Not, It's a Liability)
- Microsoft has serious financial troubles
- Which "Smart" "Phone", Which "Social" "Media", and Which "Cloud" "Storage"?
- Let's take back control of the language
- State of the (Linux) Slop, Late 2026 Edition
- Google News (Gulag Noise) is a plagiarism booster
- Year 21
- It's 5PM here
- Links 07/11/2026: "Flock Cameras Got Eviscerated by the Midterms" and Joshua Wong Shows China is Highly Repressive and Fully Controls Hong Kong
- Links for the day
- At The Register MS the Net Liabilities Doubled in One Year, Tangible Assets Down About 35% in One Year
- signed off in 2026
- Another 20 Years of Exposing Corruption
- We'll focus on carrying on what we do
- EPO Budget and Finance Committee (in Very Recent Meeting) Increases Bribes to People Who Vote on Campinos Reappointment ("Cooperation Activities")
- Buying 'elections' to protect the cocaine-stained regime in Europe's second-largest institution
- Links 07/11/2026: London's SLAPP Industry Now Targets Kirkenes (Northern Norway) at the Behest of Corrupt Thieves in Russia and Microsoft’s 'Buyout' Offer Crashes Microsoft Systems
- Links for the day
- Links 07/11/2026: "The Moon is Waning Crescent", Homeworlds, and "Can't Handle The AVIF!"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 06, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, November 06, 2026
- IBM Compels Workers - Even at Red Hat - to Become "Retired-ish"
- Who needs RAs (layoffs, which have been rebranded as "buyouts" like pink slips are generous "gifts") when workers can have their butts kicked every day and WARN Act reporting thresholds are never approached?
- Links 06/11/2026: "XBox Is Closer Than Ever to Being Sold Off" and "BuzzFeed Stock in Free Fall"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Dao and Dreams
- Links for the day
- 20 Years of Techrights
- Celebrating 2 decades of abuses of power being watched (and looking back at key changes)
- Linux (and Linus Torvalds) Sleepwalking Into a Binance-Level Catastrophe With Slop 'Code'
- Someone should ask Linus Torvalds or his boss (Linux Foundation) if they deem slop, which nobody audits, trustworthy enough to add to every computer out there running the Linux kernel
- Vitaly Orlov Weaponises Deep Pockets to Leverage High Court of Justice in London for Censorship and Punishment of Critics
- reproduced in full for more exposure and to make censorship harder
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXXI - What I Told British Police About Lozza the Same Month Garrett Was Preparing His First Nastygram From 'Hired Guns' Brett Wilson LLP
- Lozza and Garrett
- Outsourcing at IBM
- Cheapening of the workforce is hardly a new problem
- The Register MS: Turnover Fell by Over a Million Pounds (About 20%) in One Year, Administrative Expenses Rose by Almost Half a Million Pounds, The Register MS Operates at a Loss
- This is not a (commercially) healthy publisher
- Links 06/11/2026: Slop "Companies Race to Lock Down Oil Clients" and Salon Shuts Down
- Links for the day
- Our Third Decade
- Our anniversary is tonight at midnight
- Freedom Is Not Free of Charge, Freedom Can be Very Expensive
- Being someone's "slave" is the "default" when no resistance exists
- Intercontinental Brigading - Part XXXX - Swatting by Proxy
- Using imbeciles who lie to cops and then dox cops (and already have arrest record and court documents wherein they admit being stoned in front of the cops)
- Intel Craters at Taxpayers' Expense (Bailouts for Failing Companies Simple Don't Work)
- GOP, which did this, has lost many seats
- Mass Layoffs at IBM, Also Outsourcing to India
- What IBM does to itself it is doing to other entities as well
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, November 05, 2026
- During Strikes and Industrial Actions Lots of EPO Staff Organised Yesterday and Will Do the Same Next Week
- There really needs to be a genuine election, not a reappointment
- Gemini Links 06/11/2026: Hadestown and "Where Has the Electronics Shop Gone?"
- Links for the day