Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why Apple Supports OOXML

IN response to this previous post about ODF support in AbiWord, one reader wrote: "iWork 09 have no support yet! shame on Apple!"



Although I've responded to this personally, I also sought points of interest in an old Microsoft-Apple engagement, which is similar to that of Microsoft-Corel and Microsoft-Novell, both being cases of companies that sold out to Microsoft and supported OOXML [1, 2].

“Steve Jobs essentially promotes duopoly with Microsoft on the desktop.”We're deep-linking to a YouTube video here. Watch Steve Jobs saying (back in 1997) that "Apple plus Microsoft equals 100% of the desktop computer market. And so, whatever Apple and Microsoft agree to do, it's a standard."

The head of the Open Source Initiative sort of accused Novell of helping Microsoft create "Monopoly 2.0" (or duopoly), so the video above tickles a nerve. Steve Jobs essentially promotes duopoly with Microsoft on the desktop. He also ignores the existence of GNU/Linux (Apple always ignores it, to this date) and other operating systems from that time.

There was a similar incident where browser duopoly got promote by Jobs, who pretended that only Safari and Internet Explorer would exist. Apple also pushed Safari installations, slipping them by the back door (iTunes), just like malware writers typically do. In both cases, Mozilla complained publicly.

Apple's treatment of OOXML is a subject that we covered before [1, 2] and there was a note about ODF as well. Microsoft actually cited Apple (repeatedly even) as "supporter of OOXML."

Bob Sutor has meanwhile put ISO in the trashcan for being coprruptible. He totally ignores its existence. ODF, which is maintained by OASIS, will soon have this "ODF Congres" meeting in Utrecht (The Netherlands). ODF is where the world is going.

ISO Sold Out to ECMA



"ISO is dead for software standards. Do you need an official funeral?"

--Benjamin Henrion, FFII

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