[A2k] The Inquirer: Microsoft twists and turns over ODF

[Georg C. F. Greve]

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FYI.

[ http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41055 ]

   Microsoft twists and turns over ODF
   Comment Claims ODF is a monopoly

   By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 17 July 2007, 15:49

   VOLE WATCHERS might be curious about the clever backflips the
   creature has been performing over the last few weeks over the
   OpenDocument Format.

   In its latest manoeuvre, it has offered the claw of friendship saying
   that it would back ratification of its own Open XML format along with
   (ODF) as ISO standards. However, the policy document penned by Volish
   general managers Tom Robertson and Jean Paoli said Microsoft will
   only give its blessing if ODF promotes choice among the world's
   consumers.

   Yep, Vole is claiming it is a poor struggling company being stomped
   on by these nasty open saucers who hold a monopoly and are trying to
   squeeze it out of the market. Microsoft knows a lot about playing
   monopoly and realises it is more than just getting a hotel on Park
   Lane that wins you the game. But you need to have some serious
   psychological projection problems to think that the ODF could kill
   off Vole's lucrative Office product.

   By casting itself as 'open' and the 'opensource ODF format' turns the
   tables on its own image. The question is that it has about as much
   chance of pulling of a stunt like that as Boris "computer games rot
   your brains" Johnson has of getting through the London Mayoral
   elections without putting his foot in his mouth at least twice.
   Robertson and Paoli say that ODF's design is attractive to those
   users that are interested in a "particular level" of functionality.

   However the Volish "Open XML may be more attractive to those who want
   richer functionality, the ability to integrate business data into
   their documents by defining their own document schema, or a format
   that was designed to be backwards compatible with existing
   documents."

   Although this sounds like our Voles are claiming that Open XML is
   better but you need a bid of trash out there to show how good it is,
   they deny this. They say it just that the two products meet different
   needs.

   Just in case you were confused, they tell us it is how some people
   wanting to travel will drive and others will fly. It does not say
   which they think is the format which is crawling in traffic and which
   does the soaring, but we think we can guess. This month Microsoft has
   been trying to show how friendly it is to the ODF by instructing its
   new Linux chums Novell, Xandros, Linspire and Turbolinuxto come up
   with some conversion software between OpenXML and the ODF.

   The problem is that if Robertson and Paoli's early claim is correct
   would be theoretically impossible to convert a plane into a car? If
   Open XML is so complex it would be a bugger to convert into something
   as simple as ODF. Unless they have got it all wrong of course.

   More here.

   http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions

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Georg C. F. Greve                                 <greve@fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe	                 (http://fsfeurope.org)
Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom!     (http://www.fsfe.org)
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