Bonum Certa Men Certa

Is Microsoft's OOXML the “Greatest [of] Scam[s] of Computing History”?

Once a scammer, always a scammer

OOXML is fraud



Assorted links from 6 months ago:



This is now:

As expected, the Internet is abuzz with furious responses to abuse which affects each and every one of us in merely every country. Here is another set of links, which in turn contain some more links to detailed information. We really need to tidy these up and have material better organised for studying this widespread fiasco, which we earlier likened to a DDOS attack (too much, too fast).

An unanticipated response to this "scam" comes from Charles, whose words are echoed in the title of this one particular post.

If you thought you had seen everything about OOXML with the likes of Rick Jelliffe, committees that have been stuffed by Microsoft and its minions to the point where no other choice than approval would be possible, think again. And do open your eyes to one of the greatest scams of computing history. Below are a few examples of what I’m talking about today. But they are meaningful enough.


To learn about the likes of Rick Jelliffe, start with any of these anchors [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]. It's a widespread phenomenon rather than an individual case. It doesn't make Rick Jelliffe a scapegoat, but rather just a part of an extremely revolting problem.

'Chaos' in Norway



The process in Norway was suspended. This ought to help the world realise just how severe the abuse had been.

Some members of the Norwegian committee that participated in the International Organization for Standardization's Office Open XML vote are calling on Norway's Ministry of Trade and Industry to suspend the country's "yes" vote pending an investigation, according to a letter to the ISO from the Norwegian committee's chairman.


We mentioned Norway on several occasions over the past couple of days alone [1, 2, 3] and summarised some older incidents from Norway here. If you study the abuses in Norway, you will hopefully find these pointers valuable.

Bill Gates and Denmark



“You may wish to know also about the notorious relationship between the Danish Prime Minister (PM) and Microsoft's Bill Gates.”The coupling of Denmark and Microsoft is a particularly unique one. We put together a heap of links right here and later posted a a gentle complaint about a Danish Microsoft partner, Jesper Stocholm, who was doing an exceptional amount of legwork for that company, even entering Linux forums to defend OOXML. He was not alone.

You may wish to know also about the notorious relationship between the Danish Prime Minister (PM) and Microsoft's Bill Gates. This goes quite a long way back (quiet visits to his house) and it has given the PM a lot of flak over the past couple of years. Here is the gossip of interest:

Rumors are running that he also lobbied Denmark [on OOXML], where it is well known that he is a friend of the Prime Minister.


Bill Gates' 'brave crusade' for OOXML did not go unnoticed. We covered or at least mentioned the 'Mexico report' and the recent sentimental blackmail.

"Gone" is "Yes" in Polish



Poland was covered recently in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Here is another update from PolishLinux, which shows how the rules got ignored, disregarded. The European Commission already investigates Poland's TC, for a fact.

* 24 members voted to approve (7 of them without even knowing that, since no vote was counted as a vote to approve), * 13 members voted against approving the standard (a ‘NO’ vote), * 4 remaining members decided that Poland should abstain from voting.


Some more background and information you can find right here.

The Cost of Lock-in



Here is a good assortment of links from a knowledgeable CTO.

Clearly, the entire process has become a mockery. It is quite infuriating having to watch this and being unable to change what is so very obviously a process that is now heavily undermined and compromised by vendor interests. ISO is losing credibility as a technical and independent standards gremium.

Why should we care? Nobody forces us to use OOXML, right? One of the posters in the Slashdot discussion wonderfully summed up the situation we will be in:

OOXML will pass, MS Office will use its own, non-standard version of OOXML, governments will claim they are in compliance with laws requiring open standards, and the rest of us will be in the same boat we've been in for fifteen years. It's all quite sick.
Yes, I reckon that's exactly what's going to happen, and that - of course - is exactly what Microsoft wants. Sigh...


The post above comes from a blogger who recently wrote a good piece that explains the "anti-Microsoft" label. And again, just to clarify, I don't hate Microsoft. I hate corruption (who doesn't?), which Microsoft appears to resort to every day, almost as though it's a bodily function. Microsoft is very quick and skilled at comparing opposition to corruption to something else, calling critics of corruption "Microsoft bashers" or "anti-Microsoft." They even tried this against Andy Updegrove (believe it or not!).

As you will find if you search the Web, I happen to slam corruption of all sorts and all kinds of companies get accused. But Microsoft is truly a treasure trove, for its history elucidated the fact that had grown, thrived, and sustained itself in great levels of corruption, sheltered only by media outlets which it owns (sometimes literally) and government 'insiders' that turn a blind eye. Crime can go unpunished when information channels suppress truths or mitigate representation of major incidents. And that's not even accounting for what happens with Rupert Murdoch in charge...

Also see (in relation to mislabeling of critics as means of distraction):



"It’s a Simple Matter of [Microsoft’s] Commercial Interests!"

--Microsoft's Doug Mahugh about OOXML in Malaysia

Recent Techrights' Posts

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: An Introduction
Perhaps tomorrow or perhaps next week we'll share more information about what happened and what was reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency
IBM's BS (Bait, Switch) Regarding Ways to Stay Onboard
PIPs, RTOs, and forced relocations are just an illusion of choice (or ability to recover)
Banned evidence: Ars Technica forums censored email predicting DebConf23 death, Abraham Raji & Debian cover-up
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Intimidation, Threats, and Bullying Not Tolerated by Techrights
When it comes to our reporting, safety always comes first
 
Links 29/03/2025: More Crackdowns on Science, "Hey Hi" Slopping is Flopping
Links for the day
Costa Rica Almost Bankrupt Because of Microsoft
the incidents in Costa Rica are Windows incidents
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Art of Looking, Wireguard, EMacs
Links for the day
Links 29/03/2025: Attacks on Social Security and War Updates
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 28, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 28, 2025
A World Without Rules
We're long insisted on better laws and actual enforcement of them (applicable to all, not selectively applied)
statCounter Sees Microsoft Windows Falling to New, Unprecedented Lows in Palau
Taking Android into account, Windows is now down to an all-time low of 14%
Google News Lost the Fight to LLM Slop (While Google Itself Sells Slop, Nowadays Under the Name "Gemini")
Many people say that "Google is getting worse"; that's almost an understatement
Links 28/03/2025: AirAsia Trouble Again, UMich Culls All DEI Programs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Alexa is for Gullible People, Rant About Feature Overload
Links for the day
The SLAPPs From the Microsoft Strangler (and Sidekick) No Better Than Patent Trolling
one must never settle with trolls
Something to Celebrate in Gemini Protocol
More capsules and users join in
Links 28/03/2025: Last Reminder "to Delete Your 23andMe Data", "UK's First Permanent Facial Recognition Cameras Installed"
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical Continues Its FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) Campaign, Reveals Google Too Sponsored It
They're paid-for lies from a Chinese company that takes GAFAM money to write puff pieces about them
Android Rises Above 76% in Mozambique, Leaving Windows in the Dust
Windows may soon be measured as smaller than Apple's iOS
IBM, Red Hat and Microsoft Probably Also Manipulate Metrics (It Helps Con the Shareholders)
Wall Street's credibility will depend on enforcement of "checks and balances"
Slopwatch: trendhunter.com and Other Pure Junk From "Google News"
The need to vet sources is hardly new; anyone can spew out anything, anywhere. There's a need for vetting.
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Rewatching The X-Files, Slop Concerns, and NOSTR Censorship
Links for the day
Links 28/03/2025: Australia at Risk, EPO Grants Illegal Patents With Illegal Effect
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 27, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 27, 2025
Links 27/03/2025: Obituary to a Shop, Russia Trying to Buy Time
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2025: Slop, Autosuggestions, and Nostr
Links for the day
Apparently Confirmed: IBM Layoffs in Canada Today, Hundreds Affected
Impacting "177 people", says one person, "in Ottawa"
When Windows Was Dominant (1990s) Browser Monopoly Meant MSIE, But Now Google Android is Dominant and the Web in a 'Webapps' Era Works With (or Is Designed for) Chrome-isms
We've been there before
Slopwatch: BetaNews, LinuxSecurity.com, and the Attack on Web Search Using Fake and Likely Plagiarised Pages
Changing a few words here and there won't change the fact that it's not properly authored
Links 27/03/2025: U.S. Honeybee Deaths Reach Record High, Legal Occupation Next in Line After War on Science
Links for the day
Using Courts for 'Revenge' is Always a Losing Strategy
Trying to cause someone you dislike to spend a lot of money
IBM CFO James Kavanaugh Refers to Firing of Almost 10,000 Americans as "Workforce Rebalancing" (Shifting IBM's Centre of Balance to Low-salary Contracts/Countries)
The scale of IBM layoffs is getting too large to evade WARN Notices
[Video] Dr. Richard Stallman's Keynote Speech in Kerala Finally Uploaded
In non-free format and proprietary YouTube, but perhaps that's better than nothing
Islands Are Leaving Microsoft Behind, According to statCounter
Android has had a very strong year
EPO Management Fails to Deny That the Office is Discriminating Against Women
Europe's second-largest institution isn't just exceedingly corrupt but also immoral
In Some Countries the Market Share of Vista 11 is Going Down, Not Up
despite being released in 2021
Rumour: Mass Layoffs in IBM Canada Today
Maybe later today some people from Canada will say something firmer and maybe some media will even talk about that
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Gemini Links 27/03/2025: X-Files' "Kill Switch", Orlando, and ASN (Autonomous System Number) 'Hack'
Links for the day