Microsoft Open XML is set to confuse

GET SET for confusion after Microsoft yesterday got approval from a standards body for its Office Open XML file format.

The green light from Ecma International, once the European Computer Manufacturers Association, came despite a "no" - or perhaps "nein" or "non" - from IBM in a vote held in Zurich, Switzerland, suggesting that the latest development is unlikely to throw supporters of the rival Open Document Format (ODF) off the scent.

ODF recently gained ISO standards approval and is favoured by some as a format that is not led by one vendor and therefore offers the prospect of making a document readable in the dim and distant future, whatever happens to Microsoft and whatever Microsoft does.

On his bog, IBM vice-president for open source and standards, Bob Sutor, described ODF as “vastly superior to the Open XML spec. ODF is what the world needs today to drive competition, innovation, and lower costs for customers. It is an example of a real open standard versus a vendor-dictated spec that documents proprietary products via XML. ODF is about the future, Open XML is about the past. We voted for the future.”

Of course, as comments on Sutor's blog suggest, if Microsoft had said it wanted peace in the world and free beer for all, the likes of IBM and Sun might still have voted the other way.

Standing back a bit from all the picketing and apparatchiks of the two sides, you might see it this way: Open XML may have a better near-term shot at compatibility with the document mountain that is out there; ODF might be a “more neutral” approach. If you agree with those demarcation lines, you should be lobbying your vendor to support both formats as Corel has said it will with WordPerfect Office. It's fragmentation but at least you've got insurance. µ