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The Anti-ODF Whisper Campaign
eldavojohn writes "Groklaw is examining the possibility of an anti-ODF whisper campaign and the effects it has had on the ODF and OOXML Wikipedia articles. In the ODF article, Alex Brown bends the truth to make it seem like no one is supporting ODF, and that it is a flawed and incomplete standard. From the conclusion, 'So what is one to do? You obviously can't trust Wikipedia whatsoever in this area. This is unfortunate, since I am a big fan of Wikipedia. But since the day when Microsoft decided they needed to pay people to "improve" the ODF and OOXML articles, they have been a cesspool of FUD, spin and outright lies, seemingly manufactured for Microsoft's re-use in their whisper campaign. My advice would be to seek out official information on the standards, from the relevant organizations, like OASIS, the chairs of the relevant committees, etc. Ask the questions in public places and seek a public response. That is the ultimate weakness of FUD and lies. They cannot stand the light of public exposure. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.'"
So where is Alex Brown's Wikipedia page? Here
It actually takes no work at all. All one has to do is make a positive remark about Windows and BAM! -1. My mother is very proud that I think for myself and don't blindly "hate the man" just because it's the cool thing to do. I've outgrown that paranoia. I'm the fanboi? Sif. I comprehend what's going on here just fine - look at the mod! Just because you're so smart doesn't mean you're in the majority. I work on a Mac btw. I use Windows sparingly and have a linux machine that I loaded just to do it to see what all the fuss was about. I'm an anti-fanboi and that's the reason for the attitude. So your critique has missed its mark. Given the environment this is oh so expected.
> Did ReiserFS ...
Reiser did not commit his crime for the purpose of hiding failings in his product or getting it accepted as a useful file system.
> Did any of Alan Turing's theories ...
Turing was not a homosexual in order to hide faults in his theories or to have them accepted without peer review.
> items about the political actions
Microsoft did use committee stuffing, vote rigging and other political tactics that degraded the standing of ISO deliberately in order to quash discussions on the shortfalls in the 'standards'. They bulldozed through the fast track procedure when it was clearly inappropriate to use that. They suppressed discussion, they ignored criticism, they failed to publish so that 'comments' became 'late' and were ignored, they avoided the required procedures.
If they had not done those things then their 'standard', which had many faults and failings, would not have been adopted.
As it is their implementation of .docx does not match the 'standard', ECMA (paid by Microsoft) have stated that there are amendments required in the 'standard' to correct these. This of course ignores the usual procedures yet again, and the work done by ISO and merely rewrites it back to the original draft cutting out all the non-Microsoft comments and amendments.
SO let's see ODF includes :
ODT: text,
ODS: spreadsheet,
ODP: presentation,
ODG: graphics,
ODB: database
and they all work perfectly to the letter do they?