Bonum Certa Men Certa

OOXML Watch: Some of the Latest 'Funny Business' and Dirty Tricks

There are really too many incidents worth covering. We called it a DDOS attack yesterday because Microsoft manipulates in so many separate fronts at the same time. Here is our attempt to catch up with at least the majority of the latest revelations.

Microsoft and ECMA Take the Debate to the Cellar



Standards have impact on the entire population of the world, so it remains bothersome that Microsoft and ECMA, whom Microsoft hires, work so secretly. They really, really don't want you to see what they do. Here is one valid complaint about it.

Xmlguru.cz is publishing its opinion on whether the ECMA solutions are satisfactory resolving the czech comments. But the public readers of his blog don't have access to the ECMA comments. We are 14 January + 1 day, thus the question: "Where are the ECMA comments *published*?".

[...]

Can ECMA, Microsoft and ISO work in the day light, or continue their little discussion in dark closed rooms? Who will switch the light on?


Remember that the meeting in Geneva will have the media and the public shut out. We will write more about this shortly.



Burton Group: Analysts for Hire



Microsoft's OOXML games are reaching new heights again (or perhaps "new lows"). Another deceiving study is making the rounds at the moment and Microsoft really insists that, despite its proven relationships with the Burton Group, the study is "independent" and not paid for Microsoft. Where have we seen this before (HINT: Microsoft executive says in leaked antitrust exhibit that he doesn't "like it to be public on the doc that we sponsored it because I don’t think the outcome is as favorable as we had hoped. I just don’t like competitors using it as ammo against us. It is easier if it doesn’t mention that we sponsored it.")?

“More and more evidence is being found which suggests that the Burton Group is just another proxy for Microsoft.”Mind our updates to yesterday's item about the Burton Group. More and more evidence is being found which suggests that the Burton Group is just another proxy for Microsoft. To make matters bad, the Group is still trying to paint images in a fashion reminiscent to that of Rob Enderle. It shamelessly portrays all support of ODF as "anti-Microsoft", Additionally, it tries making up excuses for or at least hides Microsoft's bribes, lies, vote-stuffing, staff-sacking, and manipulation of politicians. All of this -- in favour of a format! That's how far Microsoft was willing to go and at the moment it tries hard to rewrite history by hiring third parties to whom it is close.



The Compatibility Lies



Backward compatibility? Cross-platform compatibility? Microsoft seems to care for none of that and there is an excellent new example.

While VBA is still supported in the current Windows version of Office for the PC (Office 2007), the lack of an equivalent in the latest Mac version will make it harder for enterprises to maintain compatibility between Mac and PC Office applications, and make the job of developing for separate platforms using the same IT staff just that little bit harder.

[...]

Microsoft argued that the technical problems involved in porting Visual Basic at the same time as revamping Mac Office to work on Apple's Intel platform would have meant further delays. At the same time, Microsoft has included enhanced support for AppleScript in Mac Office 2008, which can be used as an alternative to VBA for many tasks - but is, of course, incompatible.


Ironically enough, Novell and Microsoft have begun introducing the very same issues and embedding them in OpenOffice.org. It's a side effect of the terms of their deal.





Microsoft's General Counsel Admits There is a Problem



Microsoft apparently knew all along that OOXML would bring anger from the European Commission.

...I doubt Microsoft's legal team is surprised by this. After the September ruling on the first EC case, I asked Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith whether any additional features of Windows could fall under the same scrutiny that Windows Media Player received. Smith said:

"I think that it's fair to say that features that the commission regards as being present in competing applications may be subject to the kind of scrutiny the media player was put under. We basically went through that kind of process already for Windows Vista. For example, there was a lot of scrutiny on the desktop search feature, on the encryption feature, on the various security features in general, on the new file format for portable documents and that's probably a fairly indicative list of the kinds of features that one would predict they'd focus on in the future..."


Google Doesn't Want Multiple Document Standards



A good article from ComputerWorld Australia presents the views of Google's Rasmussen.

"If I want to become a vendor of office productivity tools, if I have to - in order to be interoperable with other tools - implement two different standards or five or ten different standards, then the cost becomes overwhelming."

Rasmussen said what Google would like to see is further development of ODF in lieu of standardising a new format, particularly to enable the ability to convert old files to the latest format in full fidelity.

"I don't believe its true that ODF could not, with a reasonable amount of effort, be developed to a state where that could be done.


At some stage, perhaps we ought to create a static resource page that contains many examples we have documented of OOXML manipulations. This would require a fair deal of work.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft GitHub Exposé — In the Alex Graveley Case, His Lawyer, Rick Cofer, Appears to Have Bribed the DA to Keep Graveley (and Others) Out of Prison
Is this how one gets out of prison? Hire the person who bribes the DA?
Richard Stallman's Public Talk in GNU's 40th Anniversary Ceremony
Out now
Objections to binutils CoC
LXO response to proposed Code of Conduct
Conde Nast (Reddit), Which Endlessly Defamed Richard Stallman and Had Paid Salaries to Microsoft-Connected Pedophiles, Says You Must Be Over 18 to See 'Stallman Was Right'
Does this get in the way of their Bill Gates-sponsored "Bill Gates says" programme/schedule?
 
Links 29/09/2023: Linux Foundation Boasting, QLite FDW 2.4.0 Released
Links for the day
Red Hat Does Not Understand Community and It's Publicly Promoting Microsoft's Gartner
RedHat.com is basically lioning a firm that has long been attacking GNU/Linux in the private and public sectors at the behest of Microsoft
A 'Code of Conduct' Typically Promoted by Criminal Corporations to Protect Crimes From Scrutiny
We saw this in action last week
Techrights Extends Wishes of Good Health to Richard M. Stallman
Richard Stallman has cancer
endsoftwarepatents.org Still Going, Some Good News From Canada
a blow to software patents in Canada
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 28, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, September 28, 2023
Links 28/09/2023: Openwashing and Patent Spam as 'News'
Links for the day
Links 28/09/2023: Preparing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 and 9.3 Beta
Links for the day
We Need to Liberate the Client Side and Userspace Too
Lots of work remains to be done
Recent IRC Logs (Since Site Upgrade)
better late than never
Techrights Videos Will be Back Soon
We want do publish video without any of the underlying complexity and this means changing some code
Microsoft is Faking Its Financial Performance, Buying Companies Helps Perpetuate the Big Lies (or Pass the Debt Around)
Our guess is that Microsoft will keep pretending to be huge, even as the market share of Windows (and other things) continues to decrease
Techrights Will Tell the Story (Until Next Year!) of How Since 2022 It Has Been Under a Coordinated Attack by a Horde of Vandals and Nutcases
People like these belong in handcuffs and behind bars (sometimes they are) and our readers still deserve to know the full story. It's a cautionary tale for other groups and sites
Why It Became Essential to Split GNU/Linux Stories from the Rest
These sites aren't babies anymore. In terms of age, they're already adults.
Losses and Gains in an Age of Oligarchy - A Techrights Perspective
If you don't even try to fix something, there's not even a chance it'll get fixed
Google (and the Likes Of It) Will Cause Catastrophic Information Loss Rather Than Organise the World's Information
Informational and cultural losses due to technological plunder
Links 28/09/2023: GNOME 45 Release Party, 'Smart' Homes Orphaned
Links for the day
Security Leftovers
Xen, breaches, and more
GNOME Console Won’t Support Color Palettes or Profiles; Will Support Esperanto
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Let's Hope GNU Makes it to 100
Can GNU still be in active use in 2083? Maybe.
GNU is 40, Linux is Just 32
Today it's exactly 40 years since Richard Stallman sent a message regarding GNU
GNU/Linux and Free Software News Mostly in Tux Machines Now
We've split the coverage
Links 27/09/2023: GNOME Raves and Firefox 118
Links for the day
Links 27/09/2023: 3G Phase-Out, Monopolies, and Exit of Rupert Murdoch
Links for the day
IBM Took a Man’s Voice, Pitting Him Against His Own Work, While Companies Profit from Low-Effort Garbage Generated by Bots and “Self-Service”
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer