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Microsoft Believes IBM Masterminded Anti-OOXML Initiative

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the may-have-been-some-structural-flaws dept.

mahuyar writes "Microsoft executives have accused IBM of leading the campaign against their initiative to have Office Open XML approved by the International Organization for Standardization. 'Nicos Tsilas, senior director of interoperability and IP policy at Microsoft, said that IBM and the likes of the Free Software Foundation have been lobbying governments to mandate the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard to the exclusion of any other format. "They have made this a religious and highly political debate," Tsilas said. "They are doing this because it is advancing their business model. Over 50 percent of IBM's revenues come from consulting services."'"

11 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Wait by Adradis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that the pot calling the kettle black? If Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to steamroll their way to the front, I find it incredibly hypocritical of them to call someone else out on a counter.

  2. Hmmm... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know how I know there's no God. Because if there was, a lightning bolt would come from the sky and blast this guy to smithereens.

    After all the revelations of Microsoft's attempts to poison the standards process by buying votes, to accuse someone else of some dirty campaign is so hypocritical and immoral that one has to stand in awe of the kind of twisted mind that could produce it.

    I thought only SCO's pathetic supporters with their claims that Groklaw was an IBM front were this warped, but Microsoft, congrats, you've produced the same specimen of irony-meter destroying beastling.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Hmmm... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What precisely has IBM or the Open Source community done that was unethical? Revealing the bribery that Microsoft was using? Revealing how incredibly bad and unimplementable OOXML is? Going to various partners and agencies and spilling the beans on what Microsoft is up to?

      If it wasn't for these things, it's quite possible that OOXML, a group of file formats which no one without in-depth knowledge of Microsoft's older proprietary formats could hope to implement on an independent document platform, would have got ISO certification, and the next time some government decided "We must use only open document formats", Microsoft would walk up with Office 2007 or whatever comes next, with a file format which in fact would continue to chain said government to Microsoft software, and probably get away with it.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Hmmm... by Romancer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would go so far as to say that IBM actually used the proper cahnnels for these efforts as well. I would also like to point out that Microsoft did these exact same things and more.

      Voting for or against something is actually the important part of holding a vote.

      Lobbying national bodies is the standard for attempting to have your products considered.

      Both Microsoft and IBM did these things, so why is Microsoft whining about them when they stepped over some lines on this subject and IBM didn't.

      --


      ) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
      ) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
  3. You belive about others... by KokorHekkus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...what you engage in yourself.

  4. Pot calling the kettle black by businessnerd · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why don't we look at this in reverse and see how ridiculous it looks...

    Microsoft and the likes of the Microsoft's lobbyists have been lobbying governments to mandate the rival OOXML standard to the exclusion of any other format.
    Wait a minute....that's not ridiculous at all! That's f%#&ing reality!

    Seriously, we've seen plenty of stories right here on Slashdot about Microsoft trying to buy the vote. Sweden comes to mind. And frankly, you can't call it lobbying when all you are doing is pointing out that Microsoft's "open" format is not actually open.
    --
    "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
  5. Microsoft is to blame by alextheseal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is only one company to blame and it's Microsoft. If it had been a decent spec and unencumbered people would have respected it despite the author. This spec though did not deserve the light of day.

    1. Re:Microsoft is to blame by Romancer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Holly crap!

      FTA:

      "Let's be very clear," Paoli said. "It has been fostered by a single company -- IBM. If it was not for IBM, it would have been business as usual for this standard."

      Business as usual? With all the corruption we've seen on the process, business as usual seems kinda sucky for the people when left in the hands of Microsoft.

      --


      ) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
      ) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
  6. Microsoft is crying like a little baby? by sucker_muts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So wait...

    Microsoft is crying about this, this is not fair?

    Are they... losing this battle? Is this their last defence?

    I sure hope so!

    --
    Dependency hell? => /bin/there/done/that
  7. Not incredibly dumb astroturfing? by Omnifarious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In this post and the posts above and below it I have an interesting discussion with someone who says essentially the same thing.

    Personally, when it comes down to it, I don't care who is behind the standard as long as the standard meets certain *ahem* standards. Mainly I want inter-operable implementations from more than one vendor, and I would like at least one implementation that's fully Open Source and considered the reference implementation.

    ODF meets all of those requirements. OOXML meets none of them. I don't think even Microsoft could make an implementation of OOXML in a clean room without using any of their other source code.

    So, I care not one whit for the political machinations behind it all. All I care about is having a standard that's really a standard. Putting the political machinations to the fore is a mistake, and Microsoft is trying to capitalize on that to create a smokescreen that obscures the real issue, which is that their 'standard' is awful and unimplementable.

    --
    Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
  8. Rephrased.. by fictionpuss · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Microsoft are stating that:
    1. There is a legitimate business model around supporting Free Software - which IBM demonstrates
    2. End customers who use that Free Software are able to perform their work duties as well or better than those who would use MS Office - otherwise they would not be in competition to Microsoft (#1)
    3. Standards bodies and Governments (of the people) should back OOXML/MS Office (of a corporation), which would encourage sales of MS Office, even though Free Software (of the people) is already up to the task (#2), and there is no key economic stimulus motivation (#1) (for the people) to do so

    This should be a highly political debate - otherwise we encourage our Governments/Schools to continue to waste our taxes. If Microsoft didn't lobby such institutions then it would not be a political debate.

    Calling Free Software a religious movement is a dubious and cheap slur against a movement.

    Classic FUD.