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MS Awarded "Best Campaigner Against OOXML"
HansF writes "Microsoft itself is the surprise winner of the FFII's Kayak Prize 2007, offered by the FFII in its call for rejection of Microsoft's OOXML standards proposal. The software monopolist is honored as 'Best Campaigner against OOXML Standardization.' FFII president Pieter Hintjens explains, 'We could never have done this by ourselves. By pushing so hard to get OOXML endorsed, even to the point of loading the standards boards in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, and beyond, Microsoft showed to the world how poor their format is. Good standards just don't need that kind of pressure. All together, countries made over ten thousands technical comments, a new world record for an ISO vote. Microsoft made a heroic — and costly — effort to discredit their own proposal, and we're sincerely grateful to them.'" If Microsoft doesn't send a representative to claim their 2500-Euro prize at the FFII General Assembly in November, FFII will give the money to Peruvian earthquake relief.
I opened a .docx file in a text editor the other day, just to see what it looked like.
It was plain ol' HTML with a funky DOCTYPE (with a -strict.dtd in it, so maybe, finally, MS is gonna support strict compliance to something).
I don't think the ISO organization will allow M$ to damage their reputation that way. The OOXML vote is an international scandal and the people who count are not going to forget it. The whole business has already been damaging to ISO and they would do better to bury ooxml.
Just the same, I don't feel smug about how easily they damaged ISO. When I want to feel smug, I contemplate Vista's failure and what that means for the whole next generation of M$ crap and lock in.
Vista is one of the best things that ever happened to free software. It's later, more restrictive more expensive and less functional than anyone could possibly have imagined. There is zero enthusiasm for it and a plenty of rejection.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Just like Microsoft's Java corruptions set that standard, and their C corruptions set that one, and their HTML corruptions set that one, and (as pointed out above) their TCP/IP alternative set that one, and ... um. In their dreams. They haven't corrupted the language that far yet. Standards, see, standards are written documents everyone can consult to implement products that meet them. Microsoft's entire business model fails in the presence of actual standards.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
I think duplicate comments would be even worse than unique ones. If a huge number of the reviewers see the same failings in the spec, then obviously the spec is clearly broken and should have been worked on more before even being submitted, much less before being considered for a fast-track approval.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
This argument cuts both ways and highlights the importance of open standards. I don't have windows at home, and my wife (definitely non techie - doesn't know the difference between a binary and its icon) doesn't want windows at home. Businesses that insist on communicating via windows specific technology get marked down.
Her indoors is currently doing an online course with a private company that specified that she submit all work in doc format - after she had signed up. She asked if pdf was okay and the instructor said yes. A while into the course, her instructor changed and the new one couldn't even figure out how to open a pdf. She insisted on word documents.
The ball and chain insisted on her money back if she couldn't submit in pdf, because nowhere in the advertising material or documentation did it mention having to buy software from a foreign monopoly to participate in the course until after the money was paid - my words, not hers.
Her instructor knows how to open a pdf now.
In my personal dealings with companies that want my business, I press save in open office and send the resulting file. If they can't read them, I ask them how they want them saved. I then usually save them as word documents and suggest they upgrade their office suite to one that can communicate with people who don't have word.
If MS just bit the bullet and adopted ODF, interoperability would be so good. I understand they want to monopolise the desktop, but seriously, at home, why the fuck should I pay a foriegn company for an operating system? I support the machines myself, it's not like it's a corporate environment where support contracts are important. I refuse to pay Microsoft for their crap, and I don't particularly see the need to spend the crap loads of unjustified markup on OSX (even higher and less justified in Australia then the rest of the world).
OOXML is not an implementable spec and ODF is so if businesses want to communicate with the widest possible range of customers, use a format accessible to everyone.
Send only ODF and include a link to a free ODF import/export plugin for word.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Let's face it, folks. MS had the OS market in a stranglehold. They could've gotten away with pretty much anything. Bundling with hardware? No problem at all. Actually made the Average Joe user happy. Crappy bundled software like players and browsers? Zero problem either. Who doesn't know that there's better alternatives is happy with what he got. Mandatory registration? Already a bit of a nuisance to the average user (especially if he doesn't have internet access), but still bearable. Anyone will make a single phone call to use his computer.
But then they stepped across the line where the average user grins and bears it. After a major repair, another call. After a few more, the spanish inquisition starts. People start to get nervous. They didn't do anything wrong, yet they feel as suspects for copying software. Software they bought honestly. People also care whether they can do what they used to do. Now DRM is hanging over their heads, and they start looking at their friends who use Linux, who don't have to call, who don't have to register, who get tons of software for free and legally so, and with the various installers the distributions have, it's also only a mouseclick away.
People start to look around for alternatives. Being the moderator of a "non-geek tech board", I got a pretty good idea what bugs the "Average Joe" users and what direction they take. For about a year now, we have had a vastly increasing number in postings containing questions about Linux, which distribution to take, how to install it and how to get it going, quickly followed by quite happy notes how easy it was.
I've been trying to talk them into it for a few years now. Until recently the response was mostly "What for?". Now there's a reason. So if anyone helped Linux become more of a mainstream system, it's MS.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Hooray for reverse-FUD! NetBEUI (Yeah, that's how it's spelled) wasn't made by Microsoft or even made for Microsoft. They adopted it as the default networking protocol when TCP/IP was still a little immature, the internet wasn't mainstream or readily available, and small business LANs were all the rage. It was actually a good choice for the time. Not that most people here really care about truth. Just post "Fuck M$ and WINDOZE" and you get modded as insightful.