2007 Aug 31 - Fri
Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft's Open Office XML (MS-OOXML)
The Open Document Format has been a standard for a while. It is amazing that Microsoft
did not take part in that standard development effort. Well, no, it's not really amazing.
It is well known that Microsoft likes to embrace, extend, and extinguish. It likes lock-in.
It likes to be a monopoly. Acknowledging and working with ODF would not force people to buy
and use Microsoft Office, which would be a definite profit problem.
As such, Microsoft has been pushing to have it's document format designated as a
standard by ECMA. Having their format designated as a standard provides them with marketing
visibility. Microsoft got real serious with pushing the format as a standard back last year
when the State of Massachusetts wanted to standardize on a format. ODF appeared to be on
the verge of winning. Microsoft was not amused by such a goal.
With the ECMA submission, Microsoft thought they could push things through. But with a
6000 page document, it required careful review. Many participating standards bodies have
reservations about the standard. Microsoft isn't amused by that. In fact, they see the
push back as being so signficant, that they are starting to pay their partners to become
members of the various national bodies in order to stack the vote.
I do use Microsoft products, but I'm not really enthralled by their commercial ethical
conduct. I really hope Vista bites them in the behind.... even our my boss, the owner of a
Microsoft Gold Partner, is not totally thrilled by Vista. But, I digress.
I'm wondering if there is a way for the person in the street to speak back against such
heavy handed corporate activity.
To keep people up to date on the standards activity, there are a few related web sites:
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