Germany Has Been 'Corrupted' by Microsoft

A couple of days ago, the press heralded that Germany would approve fast-tracking of OOXML. Right now, once the complete story comes to light, the press seems uninterested. We have seen this before. None of us truly expected the vote in Germany to be made calmly. Our suspicions were indeed justified. Groklaw has compiled and published some of the stories which the "big press" won't bring to the attention of a wider audience.

It looks like Germany is the new Portugal, actually. You do remember how in Portugal IBM and Sun were not allowed in the room because it was allegedly "too small" despite having empty chairs? Well, in Germany, Google and Deutsche Telekom were allowed in the room but were not allowed to vote, heise says.

It is truly amazing, yet by no means surprising.

Apple Goes Batting for OOXML

Recall what we said previously about Apple. It is among those that combat ODF. Microsoft is conveniently using Apple as a negotiation card in their 'political' debating technique (it turns technical discussions into political ones). Not only is the trial version of iWorks OOXML-deficient, but on the face of it, the whole software is lacking and thus Microsoft's argument is void.

When Apple released iWork '08, the Microsoft bloggers immediately jumped in to comment on how this is proof that MSOOXML is easily implementable by third parties. First of all, we need to realise that Apple sits in the Technical Committee at Ecma which "developed" this so called standard. So we should not be surprised at all if they have support of this file format in their upcoming products including the iPhone.

What is not said however, and I have been waiting for days for a response from Microsoft's Stephen McGibbon, is why Apple does NOT really support MSOOXML....

And it gets more interesting. The Cybertech Rambler has taken some time out to review the file formats in iWork '08. ...He also confirms what the Microsofties refuse to confirm: "on closer reading of iWorks website and documentation, it appears that iWorks can only read OOXML file but cannot write it. That’s a pity."

Correcting Microsoft Disinformation

The lies and deception, which we mention time and time again, is apparently here to stay. All one can do it rebut. Here is some of the latest:

I think it is important to correct the false - or maybe misquoted - statements by Vijay Kapoor, national technology officer of Microsoft India that I found in this interview under the question "Why does Microsoft want another standard, what's the rationale?". Microsoft starts the reply with "There are at least 4 good reasons why:" and then states the first reason.

[...]

Thus, all in all, the arguments provided by Microsoft in the interview don't seem to be valid.

Bob Sutor needed to make another important clarification after some false claims had been made.

...Unless, of course, Microsoft = OOXML as far as ECMA is concerned. If this is the case, I would like to hear this from ECMA because it would simplify matters.

Google a Possible Victim of FUD, Speaks Out About OOXML

A few days, the Burton Group published what seems like an anti-Google Apps 'study' (danger to one's career). I was unable to find evidence that Microsoft was a sponsor, but in any event, Google is no friend to OOXML [PDF].

Google is concerned about the potential adoption of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format as an ISO standard.

This 3-page document says a lot about Google's concern. At the same time, Microsoft is concerned about the rising popularity of Web-based Office suite applications, such as Google's. There was an admission of this in a recent conference.