Microsoft to ODF Technical Committee: Come Enter the Belly of the Beast

[praka123]

at 12:39 pm by Roy Schestowitz


Microsoft is trying to grab control of ODF
To some it was predictable [1, 2, 3] and to some it was not. Regardless: Microsoft Corporation, the company that actively fought ODF and force-forced an proprietary alternative like nothing less than a deranged criminal who knows no boundaries, is suddenly inviting all people behind ODF to ‘pull a Patrick Durusau’ and come to Microsoft’s turf.
The apprehensive reaction from Charles is very telling:

Watch what Erwin says just before his departure.

Maybe this invitation has something to do with Microsoft’s public “ODF has clearly won” statement at a recent event. Thus, if Microsoft has to support ODF in their products due to market demand, what ISV can still ignore supporting ODF? I guess none! Anyway, OpenOffice.org is just one implementation of ODF and is facing more than 1.2M downloads per week (!!!) on average (since the beginning of 2008) with most recent download numbers having been close to 2M.

It’s figures like that which help Microsoft see what’s coming. It’s a matter of critical mass. Reasons for this new strategy are also related to new stories like this one.

Most Danish companies are actually trying to find an alternative to MS Office at the moment.

Microsoft can see that OOXML will not be adopted by everyone, so it’s trying to ensure it can butter its toast on both sides and control all committees. Will it stick?
If this sounds familiar, it ought to. Microsoft plays exactly the same card in order to gain control over “Open Source”, having slammed and daemonised it for years. It seems as though it wants to seize as much control as possible over ODF (for self-beneficial purposes of course, even if that means derailing it).

“If this unethical behaviour by Microsoft was not sufficiently despicable, they did the unthinkable by involving politics in what should have been a technical evaluation of the standard by writing to the head of the Malaysian standards organization and getting its business partners to engage in a negative letter writing campaign to indicate lack of support of ODF in the Malaysian market. Every single negative letter on ODF received by the Malaysian standards organization was written either by Microsoft, or a Microsoft business partner or a Microsoft affiliated organization (Initiative for Software Choice and IASA).“

source:
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/06/23/odf-belly-of-beast/

[Pat]

So lets see how the picture is :

1. Microsoft fights against ODF
2. OOXML wins (somehow)
3. MS announces support for ODF and not for OOXML in their next Office release
4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war
5. Now they call for help from ODF people

Way to go MS

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by Pat

So lets see how the picture is :

1. Microsoft fights against ODF
2. OOXML wins (somehow)
3. MS announces support for ODF and not for OOXML in their next Office release
4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war
5. Now they call for help from ODF people

Way to go MS

Now lets look into this:

Cigarette is bad for health...but it attracts people towards itself.. If people go to it.. I'd blame them instead of the cigarette!

[praka123]

cigaratte= M$

[hellknight]

Hey hey, instead of cigrattte,
Marijuana=M$

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ lol...MS isn't that bad!

[iMav]

Originally Posted by Pat

4. MS PUBLICLY ACCEPT ODF has won the war

Could you link me to the press release that says so?

MS damned if they do, damned if they don't. Support ODF, oh look they are supporting ODF, if they don't MS is monopolistic, they are only supporting OOXML, that is why we were saying don't make OOXML as standard

[MetalheadGautham]

In my opinion, supporting ODF and not OOXML is the best damn thing microsoft has ever done since redefining PCs back in 1980s.

Lets see... this makes all office suites follow the same standard, and MS gets a chance to prove that its office suite is still better.

at the same time, it also ensures that people using OpenOffice, StarOffice, iOffice and KOffice are not affected. Thats because the same completely doccumented open standard can be used by each and every person in the world.

[Pat]

Originally Posted by iMav

Could you link me to the press release that says so?

If only they were honest enough to hold a press conference..However here you go:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/..._battle_1.html

MS damned if they do, damned if they don't. Support ODF, oh look they are supporting ODF, if they don't MS is monopolistic, they are only supporting OOXML, that is why we were saying don't make OOXML as standard

Wow..First they fight using all unethical means possible and make their OOXML as ISO standard and then they dont implement support for the same in their next release. Not only this, they actually implement support for the rival file format.How cool is that ?

Its not supporting ODF that we have a problem with, its fighting a war and winning (u know how) and then not implementing the very cause of the war.

[iMav]

on basis of a InfoWorld link and a quote by an MS employee you say it won There was a MS employee who once said that if he weren't at MS he would be using a Mac. Big deal if that is the basis of you saying MS said ODF won, God help you

MS never said that they will be implementing OOXML immediately, OOXML standards have elements already implemented in Office 2k7 The are coming out with a new Office version soon and it makes complete business sense to implement newer features in that release. Rival format? Only during the ISO acceptance, doesn't mean that they consider it a worthless format. ODF has it's advantages and OOo and other office suites support it. MS as a matter of fact decided to make your lives easier and you start cursing it for that. It's true MS: damned if they do, damned if they don't.

[Pat]

Originally Posted by iMav

on basis of a InfoWorld link and a quote by an MS employee you say it won There was a MS employee who once said that if he weren't at MS he would be using a Mac. Big deal if that is the basis of you saying MS said ODF won, God help you

If this is how Microsoft's Technical Officer is, then God help MS and you too
Btw, are all MS employees as stupid as their Technical Officer ? You might be knowing better

[chandru.in]

If MS is going to give full implementation of ODF , it is good. If they contribute to the improvement of ODF as a document standard, it is better.

If they start providing proprietary hooks to ODF and give a MS's own ODF implementation (they tried it with Java and were humiliated by Sun), then that would prove MS will never grow up.

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by chandru.in

If MS is going to give full implementation of ODF , it is good. If they contribute to the improvement of ODF as a document standard, it is better.

If they start providing proprietary hooks to ODF and give a MS's own ODF implementation (they tried it with Java and were humiliated by Sun), then that would prove MS will never grow up.

+1

Infact, I KNOW MS is going to have atleast *some* word exclusive extentions for ODT.

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

Infact, I KNOW MS is going to have atleast *some* word exclusive extentions for ODT.

Same guess here. MS rarely plays by rule. Esp in a market where they have a monopoly already (Office suite market), I doubt they will ever play a fair game.

I guess ODF implementation is just another of MS's EEE strategies.

[Garbage]

M$ is providing support for ODF in Office 2007 SP2.
Why they think, they MUST provide it beside it's own proprietary OOXML??

All knows how M$ got their OOXML as ISO standard. Many countries are promoted to "p-level" from "O-level"... After voting is over, they again dropped to "O-level"..

[sourav123]

^^But surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), no MS fanboy or MVP in this forum says an word about how MS won the OOXML standard.

[praka123]

^yeah LOL! see ,here it is M$'s strategy again. when every trick failed ,they want to "buy" ODF! pathetic

[iMav]

Originally Posted by sourav123

^^But surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), no MS fanboy or MVP in this forum says an word about how MS won the OOXML standard.

They won it fair & square India's top technology companies voted for it. unless off course you feel that Infosys & others are companies that have ruined India, then well there's nothing to talk about.

[Garbage]

Originally Posted by iMav

They won it fair & square

OMG... Ever heard of what M$ does to make it ISO ??? lol... fair...

[CadCrazy]

iMav Agar 10 log milkar tumhe chor bolna shuru kar de to kya tum chor ban jaoge

[Garbage]

Originally Posted by CadCrazy

iMav Agar 10 log milkar tumhe chor bolna shuru kar de to kya tum chor ban jaoge

LOL...

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by CadCrazy

iMav Agar 10 log milkar tumhe chor bolna shuru kar de to kya tum chor ban jaoge

No 5 are enough but hey they have to be iMav partners just as many yes voters in India were MS partners.

[iMav]

Originally Posted by CadCrazy

iMav Agar 10 log milkar tumhe chor bolna shuru kar de to kya tum chor ban jaoge

Nahi, aur isiliye agar tum dus log milke MS ko chor bolo, toh woh chor nahi banta. PWNED!!

[Pathik]

We all know how MS made it an ISO standard.
And now that they weren't able to implement it as even the format specifications weren't finalized, they come running back to ODF to come bail their a$$es out.
Nah, MS chor nai hai.

[sourav123]

Originally Posted by iMav

They won it fair & square

Joke of the millenium.

Originally Posted by Pathik

Nah, MS chor nai hai.

Correct, MS bandit hai.

[CadCrazy]

Originally Posted by iMav

Nahi, aur isiliye agar tum dus log milke MS ko chor bolo, toh woh chor nahi banta. PWNED!!

Now there are two possibilities :- either you believe in Crazy's law of ten persons or not

If you believe then OOXML is pwned

If not then you are pwned

Now its your choice " Ya to apne aap ko bacha lo ya apne OOXML ko ". Kisi na kisi ko to pwn hona hi padega

[Charan]

I just dont get it.. the letter from microsoft was a invitation for the members of OASIS ODF TC to attend a days technical preview of how the product will be implimenting ODF. The problem was only the location .. Redmond or Beijing .. O.o

This was the chance for the ODF TC to have a first hand look at the implimentation of ODF by MS..

The email was pure invitation for ODF implimentation Preview and nothing as stated in the articles title.. "Microsoft is trying to grab control of ODF" O.o

Why do people think if MS invites someone then is buying that person.

[FilledVoid]

The email was pure invitation for ODF implimentation Preview and nothing as stated in the articles title.. "Microsoft is trying to grab control of ODF" O.o

I believe the reason for that would be the delay for them to finally do something about ODF. They did try to get OOXML as a standard and it did , which is kind of ironic cause if I recall right the Standards war started due to the need of an "Open" standard. Not to mention the inability to produce a full blown implementation. Now the efforts look more like damage control in my view. But then again who knows, Microsoft is known for their business strategy.