Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Joins OpenDocument Alliance
Jim writes "Microsoft has joined a committee that has a key role in the ratification of OpenDocument as an international standard, leading to accusations that it intends to sabotage the process. Microsoft has denied this accusation, claiming that the only reason why Microsoft employee Jim Thatcher has joined the group was to get involved in the ISO standardisation of its own file format." From the article: "'There sits Microsoft, waiting, like a spider,' wrote Jones, in a posting on her site. 'I am imagining ODF plodding along, with Microsoft asking questions, fine-combing through the comments, did you mean this or that?, getting bogged down in minutia until, lo and behold, either Microsoft's XML makes it as an ISO standard first, or they arrive neck and neck.'" More information here on a subject we touched on in a recent Slashback.
update a few readers have asked for the clarification
that MSFT has not joined ODF, but rather the "INCITS/V1
Technical Committee"
Could you PLEASE fix the headline?! Microsoft most definitely DID NOT JOIN the OpenDocument Alliance. ODA is the group who is trying to push for ODF adoption. Microsoft can join if they want, but they don't want.
They joined the INCITS/V1 Technical Committee. They're not even remotely the same thing and don't even look remotely similar (ODA vs INCITS). Way to go on the asinine headline Zonk.
I really can't see Microsoft ever sharing the 'office' market, using universal formats, with any other company but MS.
.doc, in my business experience, for sharing documents intercompany. .xls for the forseeable future with spreadsheets though.
PDF is more standard than
We're stuck with
This is just a badass joke, isn't it?
Well correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Kerberos designed to be extendable? In other words, isn't the ability to extend the standard part of the standard itself?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
To badly paraphase Forest Gump, "Damnable is as damnable does". If Microsoft is either quiet or makes positive contributions to the ODF standard, more power to them and maybe they will become a good corporate citizen.
But if history is any guide, they will do everything in their power to beat the standard into the ground and anyone who supports it. They will do everything from dirty tricks (remember DRDOS?) to patent litigation (OpenGL), just ignore your patent (Stacker), to "growing the polluted environment" (Java) to "cutting off the air supply" (Netscape) to making incompatible versions (Kerberos, CHAP, DNS, TCP) to "put the competition on a treadmill" (everyone) to FUD (Linux and GPL are a cancer).
"Microsoft never have had much to do with standards, other than to completely ignore them and create their own stuff regardless."
I am not so sure about that. They made a fine friggin mess of the SPF standard by introducing patents on several key parts of the standard while delaying and filibustering until the IETF working group (MARID) became defunct as a result. I am sure I could find other examples of MS strong-arming, delaying, and otherwise being a general pain in the ass to standards bodies.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
Microsoft claim shakes graphics world
3D graphics world shaken by patent claims
Standards stalled over royalty disputes
Microsoft clarifies OpenGL position ... sort of
OpenGL 1.4 unveiled
Right in this very discussion even!
Microsoft managed to stall OpenGL 2.0 and other improvements for the longest time by claiming potential patent infringements with its vertex and pixel shader technologies. As a result OpenGL stalled for some time. Microsoft has since left the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) after doing the damage it needed to do. Deja vu.
Quickly accused to be BS by an Anonymous Coward.
but then another AC to the rescue with the smackdown.
Honestly, do you really think Microsoft is interested in collaborating with a standard that threatens to deprecate the MS Office format? Is that what you seriously believe?
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
That's not what the guideline say. They're designed to ensure that the body itself doesn't become a vehicel for violation of antitrust laws (i.e. in the course of the meetings, everybody decides "let's raise prices for our software and services by 20%"), which could endanger the body's existence.
WILL YOU FIX THE HEADLINE PLEASE ?????????
TOTALLY WRONG, DIFFERENT STANDARDS BODY
YOU NEED TO TRIPLE CHECK BEFORE YOU THROW THIS CRAP TO THE HOMEPAGE
ODA vs INCITS, It doesn't look like an unintentional mistake, pure, absolute slashdot rubbish.
It's not even up to the minimum common journalistic or blogging standard.
(oh, wait, slashdot was in dire need for more hits today)
Microsoft most definitely DID NOT JOIN the OpenDocument Alliance. ODA is the group who is trying to push for ODF adoption. Microsoft can join if they want, but they don't want.
They joined the INCITS/V1 Technical Committee. They're not even remotely the same thing and don't even look remotely similar (ODA vs INCITS).