Bonum Certa Men Certa

ISO Maxes Up Damage Control, OOXML Storm Looming

ISO sells stamps



At this stage, ISO seems to have a rough idea of what's to come. OOXML could still be binned, as it always should have right from the very start had it not been for corruption.

“Microsoft may have media control, but hardly any juridical control, especially not outside the United States.”There's a big storm coming, but it's too early to disclose the details. In the mean time, leak by leak and drop by drop, eventually the truth will dribble out. Microsoft may have media control, but hardly any juridical control, especially not outside the United States.

Yesterday we saw some new examples of scandals from France and from Norway. There have been some ugly incidents or observation also in Croatia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the UK, Denmark and where not? The main difference between one country and another is the level of visibility of the process. In the UK, for example, the secrecy was unbelievable. Isn't it an open standard they purport to be weighing on? Almost nowhere have proceedings been fully transparent and those who 'dared' to speak out were sometimes at risk of getting sued.

Like a family preparing for the hurricane, ISO seems to have secured the home, stocked up the shelves and done maximum damage control just before shutting its doors and taking OXML [sic] down to the basement where it can lose its mind with a set of headphones and a fully-changed Walkman.

It's actually to be expected.

ISO now has skeletons in it's closet so they don't *want* an appeals to be filed. Anything they can do to put this whole mess in the past and bury those skeletons is what they'll do. They've already: * Put out an "Everything is okay" SNAFU FAQ * Tried to convince people that people who actually want quality standards (not fake unimplementable specs) are just anti-OOXML because they're pro-ODF * Tried to convince people that the only opposition is just a group of weirdos that like to protest anything, likely sponsored by IBM


This type of attitude of course utterly despicable coming from what's considered to be the "International" body responsible for industrial 'rules'. How thoroughly has it been corrupted by Microsoft, having been hijacked? One has to wonder.

The Noooxml lobby has been rather quiet recently, but efforts continue to go into raising of awareness rather than tracking and documentation of known and newly-revealed scandals. Speaking of positives:

I find it important to share the effort for the promotion of interoperable digital standards policies globally. Some members of our community refer to it ironically as the "domino project". Policies like the one of the Netherlands are going to inspire other administrations to take similar steps. The call for open standards, that is standards free of vendor capture, which preserve us the "freedom to leave" regarding standard based solutions, would mount. One small step triggers the next.


Another item which is worth mentioning is this coverage about Corel. To satisfy a reader's request we recently summarised the Corel situation. It appears as though Corel is still not fully obliged to neither OOXML nor to ODF. It does, however, brag about PDF capabilities.

Support for Open Office XML (which has been implemented as a standardised version, but not yet in software) and the OpenDocument format allows document exchange with users of Office 2007 and OpenOffice and StarOffice. However, the "File Format Freedom" mentioned in Corel's press release only applies to read access: Documents can't be saved in either of the two formats.


It's worth tracking to see where Corel's development efforts are focused and spent from this point onward, having probably found something rotten in FreeThink's feedback. In short, there have been stories in the past that exposed Microsoft as it paid developers and/or businesses to steer away from ODF. In the same fashion, Microsoft offers generous incentives for big players and even government-funded bodies to embrace Silverlight. It's anti-competitive use of money.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Weaponisation of For-Profit Dockets - Part I: Hiding Behind Lawyers (or Guns for Hire) After Abusing Many People and Even Strangling Women While Microsoft Paid Salaries
This whole thing is very typical of the Microsoft and Bill Gates mindset
From EPO to "MAGA Regime": A Shift Away From Reality to Fake News and False Metrics
Disbelief in itself isn't a bad thing; but the problem is that people are taught to believe rich people in suits more than they believe others
Skype is Officially Dead Today and This is Why People Should Use Free Software Instead (Goodbye, Microsoft)
It's also a good reminder of why people should move to GNU/Linux
'Simple Articles' in MyGemini Just One of Many New 'Sites' in Geminispace
Geminispace has grown fast lately; it's turning 6 next month
 
Links 06/05/2025: LLMs/Chatbots Attract More Scrutiny (Getting Worse Over Time), PwC Has Many Layoffs
Links for the day
Thanks for listening. How can this Morse feed be further improved?
Right now any and all feedback on the audio would be helpful
statCounter: Bing's Market Share Lower Right Now Than It Was When LLM Hype Began (With "Bing Chat")
If anybody gains at Google's expense in search, it is BRICS' alternatives such as Yandex
Gemini Links 06/05/2025: Failure and Proxmox Cluster
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 05, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 05, 2025
Links 05/05/2025: TikTok Still a Romanian Woe/Foe, Signal Perils Showing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: Debian and GNOME and a "Welcome to Simple Articles"
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: US Economy Shrinks, US Presidency Spreading Deepfakes
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: Breaches, Environment, and Conflicts
Links for the day
SUSE the Company Now Uses LLM Slop to 'Write' Its Blog, What Does That Tell Us About SUSE?
There are many giveaways
Richard Stallman is in Alicante Today to Give a Talk, Czech Republic in Two Days (Wednesday)
Of course he can deliver the talk in Spanish
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: XL Bullies and Luddites
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 04, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 04, 2025
Links 04/05/2025: Science, Conflicts, and Monopolies
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Above 7% in Bulgaria, Rising Just Like in Most of Europe
Up to 7%, not counting Chromebooks
Data Shows Largest EU Economies Shifting to GNU/Linux
all-time highs
statCounter Says Only One in 6 Web-Connected Clients in Hungary Are Using Windows, iOS Almost Bigger Than Windows Now
Hungary is a cautionary tale in the world of European (or Russian) politics
Many Reports About Microsoft's Financial Report/Performance Are False, Fake News, Churnalism/Parroting, and LLM Slop (Machine-Generated Lies)
Even if you see a thousand sites saying that Microsoft is performing well ask yourself why the company is rushing to fire tens of thousands of workers and cancelling datacentres
Links 04/05/2025: FCC Turning Into MAGA’s Censoring Machine, SEC Pressured to Delist Chinese Companies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/05/2025: Historical Artifacts and Date Calculations in POSIX Shell
Links for the day
In the First 3 Months of 2025 GAFAM Debt Rose by More Than $14.4 Billion
That's based on their official statements
10-Step Strategy to Get BRETT WILSON LLP ("Gun for Hire"), Microsoft's Serial Strangler, and the Serial Defamer to Compensate Techrights and Tux Machines for Years of SLAPPs and Abusive Litigation
There's no room or capacity for forgiveness here; enablers and protectors of crime need to be scuttled and pay up in full
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 03, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 03, 2025