NoOOXML

An article I wrote to explain why multiple standards are bad.

Anand Vaidya has made a very good presentation about "Microsoft OOXML / ECMA376: Get The Facts" in about 75 slides. This resumes very well the problems with the Microsoft pseudo-standard.

"Members of the free software community should do more" is the conclusion drawned by Tony Mobily on the OOXML fight in his article published on the Free Software Magazine.

The ISO DIS voting form G18 that National Bodies should use to vote contains another indicative element that they should vote NO if they have technical problems with the standard proposal. Microsoft is trying to convince them to vote Yes with comments, even if those comments are technical.

Update on the Swedish OOXML review process

Microsoft is arguing in every national committee that a long list of software applications and platforms support already the OOXML format, and that it was designed to fulfill new broad features not covered by OpenDocument. Let's see how accurate these statements are...

The INCITS executive group has voted by far not to approve ISO DIS 29500. Official bodies like the DoD and the NIST decided to reject the specification because of its deficiencies. Also Oracle, IBM or Lexmark, and the standard association GS1 US. On the other side, Microsoft and its yes-men Apple, Intel and HP. Now ANSI has to decide the final vote of US. Hopefully will take into account the several hundreds of comments provided by the technical group of INCITS, the V1 (no matter if hijacked by the vendor yes-men).

ECMA and Microsoft employees are mentioning that there is a bilateral RFRAND patent licence available for companies that "sometimes have a large commercial operation" and prefer to enter into a bi-lateral license agreement as opposed to relying on a CNS or OSP-like promise.

Australia will probably go Yes with with a Christmas card; comments are still possible until August 21st; Microsoft has a well-organized PR push at these events; Google was there but Sun was not; there were empty seats(!); Microsoft is pushing the idea that multiple standards are fine.

Stephen A. Hockema and Jutta Treviranus of the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto, look at how OOXML works for persons with disabilities. Their conclusion: the format does not provide sufficient accessibility.

They are rumors that some countries (more details soon) might suddenly become P-members, under Microsoft pressure. Microsoft is probably afraid to loose the vote of the P-members, thus they are asking National Bodies of developing countries to quickly become P members. This move can be quickly done. The vote of P and O members is becoming a moving target.

The experts and the enterprises of China, representing the interests of a one fifth of the Earth population and one of the biggest economical super-powers, have determined that ISO DIS 29500 should not become ISO 29500 because it severely lacks in converting former Chinese document and because "it will do harm to the country's overall software industry". China will be one more vote NO to the interests of Microsoft at ISO/IEC.

BoycottNovell explains, with clear graphics and labels, why many very important Linux distributors are supporting OOXML. It's very important to understand why big firms like TurboLinux, Corel, Xandros, Linspire, and Novell, believe OOXML is better than hot sliced bread. Read on...

The Polish Standardization Committee wants to get answers to the three questions: 1. Is there a certifiable violation of patent and IP policy of ISO?; 2. Is the proposed norm meets the aims of international norm described in ISO/IEC directives?; 3. Is the proposed norm is in contradiction with other existing ISO norms?

Thanks to many contributors, the NoOOXML petition now has translations in 35 languages and has received over 31,000 signatures from individuals around the world.

While the vendor tries to beat "OOXML is great" into everyone's head, its own Mac Business Unit can't implement OOXML convertors on time to ship with Office 2008 for Mac. Originally promised for spring 2007, the converters won't even ship with Mac Office 2008, says a vendor spokesman.

Italy, a "P" member of ISO/IEC whose subcommittee in charge of DIS 29500 was invaded by Microsoft partners, finally has got an ABSTENTION and won't back OOXML as Microsoft looked for.

An anonymous coward explains how the Swiss national board will vote, in a fair and free decision that will think carefully before saying "YES" to Microsoft.

EU competition policy is a lame duck but it is alive. However, Kroes won't sanitize OOXML patent and disclosure problems.

Microsoft has put in the Brazilian committee more than 2/3 of the currently existing 54 members. The technical debate about DIS 29500 does not matter now. Only matters who puts more members in the committee for the final vote at the end August. ISO and ABNT are being hijacked by Microsoft and its partners.