Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Lies About OOXML and the Failure of Microsoft Office 2010

OOXML is fraud



Summary: Another look at Microsoft's abuse of the law and its relationship to Office 2010, which will not support OOXML

YESTERDAY we wrote about Microsoft's abuse in France paying off. Groklaw has highlighted this corresponding page which is suitably titled "François Fillon's gift to Microsoft" and it states:

The decree validating the General Interoperability Framework was published in the French "Journal Officiel" on the 11th of November 2009. It ratifies the 12th of May 2009 version which spreads confusion by recommending two rival standards for office documents. April had already denounced a writing opposed to the goals of interoperability and accessibility of e-administration for all citizens.

"RGI as it is written maintains the confusion about office documents standards. It hands public administrations over to Microsoft's deceptions and dooms their data to be kept locked in proprietary formats" explained public affairs manager Alix Cazenave. "Far from promoting interoperability this duplicity will generate discrimination between citizens for the access to electronic administrations."

In April's opinion, this record confirms that the French executive authority hardly pays attention to competition in the software market. "After the intervention of the President's people in favor of Microsoft's OOXML standardization, the fact that the Prime Minister ratifies this order confirms the support of the French executive authority to Microsoft's dominant position. We have just missed a historical opportunity to support openness and innovation in the software market" denounced Frédéric Couchet, executive director.


To the above, adds Groklaw (no permanent link): "The silliness of this decision can be gleaned from footnote 4, which reads in part: "The current document recommends the use of either Open Document format or OOXML format. DGME, French Directorate-General for State Modernisation, however admits that 'no implementation of this standard currently exists'."

“So you can use either ODF or OOXML, except actually you can't use OOXML currently, and in fact nobody in the world is, but they chose it anyway as an interoperability standard.”
      --Groklaw
"It's quoting from the RGI document, which you can verify by reading it -- it's a pdf and in French -- and then look at page 61. Sean Daly translates paragraph five for us: "Office Open XML is an XML-based office productivity format. It natively supports a subset of existing binary formats. As of this writing, no implementation of this standard exists." And the last paragraph on that page: "This sheet is based upon information available as of May 2009 and will be revised before the official publication of the reference document [RGI] if new information pertinent to the evaluation appears." So you can use either ODF or OOXML, except actually you can't use OOXML currently, and in fact nobody in the world is, but they chose it anyway as an interoperability standard. Silly or what?"

Well, anyway, Microsoft was accused of lying last week when asked about OOXML support in Office 2010. Based on this early review of Office 2010, Microsoft is 'pulling another Ribbon' and giving more people reason to despise Office 2010.

The fun doesn't end with Outlook. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all infected with what I've dubbed the Back Stage Virus. I'm referring, of course, to the new Back Stage view that pops up whenever you click the File tab in any of these applications. Instead of the drop-down menu that appears on all previous ribbonized applications (including the Windows 7 Paint and WordPad accessories), Office 2010 presents you with a dedicated, full-window pane containing a schizophrenic array of buttons, button menus, and hyperlink-like text labels.


This can also be found here: "Microsoft Office 2010: So Many Reasons to Hate It"

Office 2010 is clunky -- that's the first word that comes to mind as I meander around the recently leaked official beta release (build 14.0.4514.1007, for those keeping score). The default color scheme is a ghastly gradient gray blur, while the new Outlook Scenic Ribbon toolbar is a disorganized mess.


VentureBeat argues that Microsoft "misses the boat" when it comes to web applications and the Gerson Lehrman Group has a typo in its report's headline/title, which says: "Microsoft Protects its Flanks to Save It's Ass"

Summary

* Microsoft is making a defensive alliance to complete its stack * Fortunes will be made and lost developing cloud offerings * Despite the hype Cloud Computing is a real long term trend


As we will show later today, Microsoft is now conspiring with companies to attack its ODF-supporting competitors in a gangster-like fashion. That's the only thing Microsoft has left as bullies will be bullies.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
 
More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.