Office to get ISO approval
If file format is approved, Open XML wins
MICROSOFT'S OFFICE Open XML standard has been given the nod by the International Standards Organisation after a controversial attempt to get recognition.
According to AP, the vote is expected to be announced today and Microsoft has done enough to get itself recognised.
The announcement marks the end of a long campaign by Vole to get the standard recognised as a way of saving Word, Excel and PowerPoint files so that they can be used by rival software.
However, Open saucers claim that the standard does not do what it says on the tin and would leave users vulnerable to any Volish future changes. This could leave government or corporate archives unreadable, especially by non-Microsoft programs.
It is a battle between rival standards. Open saucers want the world-plus-dog to use the Open Document Format which is backed by Sun Microsystems, IBM and many others. One of the issues that enabled Microsoft to get the standard turned over to another body to administer.
This meant that even if Microsoft did change its software in the future, the independent body would have the job of making the standard work.
This probably satisfied the standards body, although there were allegations that Vole used strong-arm tactics to push the thing through. µ
L'Inq
AP
Comments
Strong Arm Tactics!
I will not stand idly by and read you even hinting that Microsoft would do such an audacious act!! How dare you assume to muddy the name of an upstanding do-gooding righteous company!! A towering pillar of the community! A self sacrificing warrior among giants! All you open sinners will burn for this!!(note: for any one too stupid to understand I was being sarcastic, I was being sarcastic… hmmm’kay?)
Shamdard
Or ScamdardISO
As someone on Groklaw pointed out the acronym ISO stands for: I Sold Out.Regardless of circumstances and involved parties if you take money in exchange for 'services' you are a -CENSORED- and you shall be treated as one.
Catalogue of crimes
You could (and somone probabily will) write a large book full of the criminal, procedural and moral wrongs committed by microsoft to get this passed. It has turned the ISO from a very valuable body in to a 3rd world dictatorship.Get the facts all over the web, its crazzy and wrong.
Stop Whining!
If it's an ISO standard, why would it put users under MS' whims? On the contrary wouldn't it protect them? Will the ideologues please leave?undo
is there any way to unclassify a standard once it has been made a standard?e.g. if OOXML becomes a standard, then they find (a little belatedly) that most of the process was dodgy, the supposed standard incomplete/unfunctional/etc, can OOXML be removed from the list of ISO standards?
Not over yet
Crispin: A book is in the works. One of the guys who followed the issues closely on his blog is doing it. I think it is Bob Sutor, but I might be remembering the name wrong.Nick: You were far too easy on Microsoft's behaviour in this affair. They have subverted the standards-setting process. The EU is investigating. There has been one formal complaint filed with ISO already, about the Norwegian vote. I hope several others follow, as well as a formal protest of the utter failure of the process. It isn't over yet for the April Fool Standard. All the additional fuss might not end up changing the formal result, but I hope it succeeds in making it even more evident how despicable Microsoft's behaviour has been.