Bonum Certa Men Certa

GNOME's Position on OOXML is Still Hurting OpenDocument Format



When Microsoft provides various examples of OOXML support, one of which is GNOME's Gnumeric, it is important to remember that this is just one example among many others, which can be found in entirely separate places (besides other examples on MSDN blogs). That's where Microsoft uses "GNOME support" as a bargaining card that demonstrates independence from the proprietary software world.

When several highly-visible GNOME people openly make negative statements about ODF and also make statements like "Office Open XML should be and blessed as and ISO standard", this is damaging. When ECMA, in their most recent press release, mentions GNOME as a party that participates in the standardisation of OOXML, that is damaging. There are many other examples.

GNOME is essentially giving Microsoft many weapons to use for spin. Microsoft is arguing that OOXML is not bad for Free Software (GNOME) and should therefore be accepted as an ISO standard.

GNOME is naively pragmatic in this matter. In many respects, it's possible to see some logic. It can be said on behalf of many in the community, who are not involved in the ISO process, that this is a case of pragmatism. It's only a part of a larger picture though.

”In the mean time, Microsoft is lobbying privately and it is using GNOME as a support example.“After the BRM, National Boards go home to discuss the "new text". This is when Microsoft will come in with all the silver bullets GNOME has given them. In the mean time, Microsoft is lobbying privately and it is using GNOME as a support example. That is a fact. Why would they not?

A suspecting party which opposes OOXML might ask: "But what about Free software, and patents, and the difficulties involved in implementing all of this?" Microsoft then responds confidently by using GNOME as the example that makes the 'perfect child', selectively citing and quoting voices from GNOME -- voices that strongly support OOXML, not to mention an existing implementation and arguments that wrongly falsify some of the main deficiencies of OOXML (e.g. binary 'extensions', whose existence Jody Goldberg has tried to deny). Some of these arguments come from the mouths of a small groups (maybe just a tiny subset) of GNOME's developer community, but that's enough for Microsoft to pick on.

There are all sorts of excuses here about the community being independent and not being forced to adopt and accept a policy from up above, but this is where the Foundation's role comes into play. It serves as an umbrella and it was not effective with its latest statement on this issue. It tried to express support for ODF, but it achieved quite the opposite thing by sending out a mixed message on the need for one universal standard.

There are quick sound bites, not much time to rebuke and these GNOME activities do damage. Period. This is not just us talking, but major international standards experts like Andrew Updergrove, Alberto for FFII.org and many others on the front line, who are right now preparing to beat down OOXML at ISO. None of them is happy with GNOME's actions (speaking collectively here), so we, as Free standards and/or software supporters should not be either.

Some GNOME users might have to work with OOXML, which is a fast-moving target. In fact, it is moving so fast that even Office 2007 is not using the ECMA standard right now (Office 2009 is approaching a test build and who knows what 'features' will be added to the OOXML filedump by the time it's relased?). Microsoft has already stated that it is not necessarily committed to stick to its own ECMA specification, which is still being changed.

The fact is that none (or very few) of GNOME's users have actually received a .docx file. So, why get involved now amid this highly political process with so much at stack for so many in the community who have worked so hard, including all the major companies like Sun, IBM, Google, Oracle, the major financiers of Free software?

”GNOME is believed to have over-stepped its boundaries and made a mistake.“GNOME is believed to have over-stepped its boundaries and made a mistake. It cannot benefit from this participation in any way now and can only hurt itself and the community. Jeff Waugh refuses to admit it and some of his responses are aggressive and stubborn, which makes matters worse for the community as a whole.

Those who defend OOXML inside GNOME can deny things all they want, but others already do some 'legwork' by explaining our points (Jamie, Richard Stallman, Rui and maybe even Sutor and Weir, who begin to understand how OpenOffice and Symphony can get 'poisoned' by patents, through OOXML and Mono). The GNOME folks try to shoot the messenger, especially those who are close to Novell. To them, OOXML support might actually be a competitive advantage. It's all about Novell, at the expense of everyone else in the Free software world, among other worlds.

Mono Microsoft brain Novell has the Mono/OOXML patent protection advantage in mind

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
From his public pages (this is not secret)
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, Fake Text, Fake Images, Negative Slant on "Linux"
Google News has lost its value; the signal-to-noise ratio has fallen off a cliff
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Relax-and-Recover on Proxmox and New Smolweb File Transfer Service
Links for the day
Fact: EFF Got Corrupted by Corporate Money. Microsoft Lunduke (Political Noise): The Issue With EFF is, It Kills Babies.
Microsoft Lunduke - as usual - finds a way to make it about abortions
Pacing Publication Up a Bit
The news cycles have gotten rather light and slow
Links 17/09/2025: Power Outages, Digital Controls, and Attacks on the Mainstream Media (by Insecure and Corrupt Dictators)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
Links for the day
The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
what's all this concern about memory safety?
Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
And not retiring
Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
We must always go back to the core issues
3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
USA Not a Place for Free Speech
In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News is Slop, Google News is Plagiarism, Google News is Dying
Google is off the rails
Links 16/09/2025: "The Censorship Alarm Is Ringing in the Wrong Direction" and ASRock Does Microsoft E.E.E. on GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Serious "Breach of Confidentiality of Personal Data" in Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the EPO
Yes, the same EPO that routinely uses "data protection" and "GDPR" as a pretext for hiding or covering up its corruption and white-collar crimes (it even uses that as an excuse for refusing to obey courts' orders)
Adrienne Rockenhaus Says Her Husband Was Arrested for Running Tor and Denied Basic Rights in the United States
the US seems to be getting "russified" in its approach towards Tor
This is What Happens When Microsoft Canonical Lets Decisions on Ubuntu be Made by a Youngster From the British Army (Where He Did Mass Surveillance)
"Is Ubuntu Compromised?"
Back Doored Windows Giving GNU/Linux a Hard Time (Under the Guise of 'Security')
Is this complication intentional? Most likely, yes
Links 16/09/2025: Science, Security, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/09/2025: Command-line Options in POSIX Shell and Introducing Acre 0.9
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Secure' Boot Versus Dual Boot With GNU/Linux
they're meant to assume everything is OK
Links 16/09/2025: While Oracle Pretends to be Rich It's Firing About 70 MySQL Workers, "Oracle's Revenge" (Faking Demand With "AI")
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Just Published a New Web Page About "Secure Boot Update Process" (Microsoft Also Admits Issues; PCs Can Stop Booting)
Why was this page issued and published only hours ago?
Microsoft Lunduke: I Spread Hate and Then I Receive Hate
Cry us a river, Microsoft Lunduke
"Use Wayland" Isn't a Bugfix for X (X11 is Still Necessary)
They tell us X is "dead" and we must all be herded into Wayland ASAP
"Disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. Wipe and Start Over."
At least they didn't say, buy a new computer...
The Oracle Ponzi Scheme
Oracle isn't doing well, but it's nowadays fashionable to say "clown" and "hey hi" to prop up one's stock, even based on nothing at all
The New Head of OSI is an "Hey Hi" (AI) Obsessed Person
when Bryant says "AI" that doesn't mean AI
Taking Out the Battery, Opening Up Your Computer, Just Like a "Normie" Would
At this stage, any person who still says "enable Secure Boot" is misguided or persuaded by companies that sell rootkits
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms Still Infesting Google News (Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" Spreading FUD)
searching for "Linux" today yields a lot of FUD
"Governments, local authorities, schools and hospitals can lead by example by procuring only Free Software"
Crossposted from Tux Machines
Cindy Cohn Leaving the Electronic Frontier Foundation While Its Co-founder John Gilmore, Whom She Apparently Helped Oust, Will Celebrate 40 Years of the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
EFF has been busy hoarding GAFAM money, whereas the latter is where all the real activism is done
The Reach of Techrights Has Broadened
We nowadays cover a broader range of issues
"Google is Googlebombing KDE's Project Banana"
So is Google googlebombing KDE's Project Banana? You decide.
Complicating Things for No Actual Benefit, Just Added Risk and More Difficulties Adding GNU/Linux and BSDs
Watch what it's like for people who wish to use BSDs
Some Very Large IRC Networks Are Growing
IRC will turn 38 next year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 15, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 15, 2025
Links 16/09/2025: Autumn Party, RPG Planet, and Optical ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day