When OOXML Attacks Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2011-12-15 23:52:04 UTC
- Modified: 2011-12-15 23:52:04 UTC
Summary: Europe's transition to Free/Open Source software is stifled by the existence of Microsoft's fake 'open' format
THE SUBJECT of OOXML/ODF was covered here thoroughly in 2007 and 2008. We showed a great deal of lies, corruption, and cover-up.
Putting aside the corruption behind OOXML, the anticompetitive aspect of it returns to haunt Europe. Ryan says that "they should get rid of it and use ODF" and notes that the "Open Source Business Alliance" has created a new working group – "Office Interoperability."
"Business Alliance," notes Ryan, is similar to
the BSA and many times before we explained that interoperability is
just a weasel word used to marginalise open standards. "I smell Ballmer," Ryan says, but
the report is not so amusing. To quote:
IT authorities from Germany and Switzerland have announced that they are working together, under the auspices of the Open Source Business Alliance, to improve the way that LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org display and process OOXML-formatted documents. The authorities involved include the IT groups from the cities of Munich, Jena and Freiburg im Breisgau, the Swiss canton of Waadt, the Swiss Federal Court and the Schweizer Informatikstrategie Bund (Swiss IT Federation) whose representatives met at a workshop in Zurich in October to launch the "Precise reproduction of OOXML documents in Open Source Office applications" project. Slides for the workshop provide more details of what was discussed.
This was the purpose of OOXML all along -- throwing users back into the same loop and the same lock-in/trap.
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Comments
Michael
2011-12-16 00:54:36
What?
If OpenOffice and LibreOffice can better work with MS Office this is a *good* thing... not a bad.
Will
2011-12-16 23:05:54
Michael
2011-12-17 00:46:09
Sure, it would be great if MS used ODF, just as it would be great if OO.o and LibrO used OOXML. But it is not as if MS has any obligation to do so - and there is no real reason to think ODF is even up to the task (it may or may not be - though I seem to recall it had significant areas where it did not... I do not recall details).
But you completely dodged my point. Roy made an absurd claim: moving to an open format is not done to throw “users back into the same loop and the same lock-in/trap”. Roy is simply showing off his anti-MS bias and hatred.
Will
2011-12-17 03:42:16
ODF has over a dozen implementations.
Will
2011-12-17 03:42:18
ODF has over a dozen implementations.
Michael
2011-12-17 04:57:59
Will
2011-12-17 05:13:23
Michael
2011-12-17 05:39:36
So MS made a new format - an *open* format - which serves their needs well. Good. Sure, there are problems and those should be worked out, but what is wrong with a company making a format and allowing it to be open? Are you now against competition? Against choice? "Choice" is the mantra of many open source advocates as long as the choices that are made are the ones they like. As soon as someone makes the "wrong" choice they must be evil and choice is bad.
And, of course, this is still a side issue on my main point: Roy made an absurd claim: moving to an open format is not done to throw “users back into the same loop and the same lock-in/trap”. Roy is simply showing off his anti-MS bias and hatred.