Ars tests Microsoft's ODF add-in for Office
,----[ Quoet ]
| My first test, with Office 2007, was a disappointment. The promised
| conversion feature was not added to the File menu. I hopped over to the
| Add-Ins pane on the Options dialog to investigate and found that the ODF
| add-in had failed to load because of a runtime error. I glanced through the
| troubleshooting guide and didn't see any guidance for my specific problem. I
| tried rebooting, and then reinstalling, but neither fixed the problem.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080307-microsofts-odf-add-in-for-office-still-not-good-enough.html
Who Cares About OOXML?
,----[ Quote ]
| It is equally important that the third party application supports OOXML
| without having to license anything from Microsoft. If any third party depends
| on Microsoft for its support of this so-called standard, the standard no
| longer has any practical value. As long as Microsoft builds into its
| so-called standard the power to eliminate competitors, the practical value of
| having disparate sources supporting said standard is nil. There is no
| practical value of having disparate sources support a standard if, with the
| flick of a patent claim or lawsuit, Microsoft can eliminate those other
| disparate sources.
|
| In conclusion, anyone who really understands the value of openness and open
| standards doesn’t even need to pay attention to the soap opera saga of OOXML
| and the ISO. For the foreseeable future, OOXML should be off limits based on
| principle alone, no matter what the ISO decides.
`----
http://petreley.com/?p=3
OOXML: where lies and corruption intersect.
Related:
Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open
| Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was
| the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if
| Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the
| Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an
| external conversion program from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to
| both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the
| same and different at the same time.
`----
http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/92735
Probe into votes on Microsoft standard
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission is investigating the process under which a key
| Microsoft document format could be adopted as an industry standard - a move
| that would carry significant commercial benefits for the software company.
|
| Officials at the European Commission's competition directorate have written
| to members of the International Organisation for Standardisation, asking how
| they prepared for votes in September and later this month on acceptance of
| Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard. Without ISO
| acceptance, Microsoft could stand to lose business, particularly with
| government clients, some of which are becoming increasingly keen to use only
| ISO-certified software.
|
| The ISO process has been widely criticised, however, with some members of
| national standards' bodies accusing Microsoft and its rivals of attempting to
| influence the vote.
|
| Tim Bray, a member of the Canadian national standards body, called the
| procedure "complete, utter, unadulterated bullshit" in a recent blog posting.
|
| [...]
|
| In addition, in several countries, a large number of Microsoft partners
| joined the national standards organisations just ahead of a vote on the issue
| in September.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft said it openly encouraged its partners to participate in the ISO
| process, but was not funding any third parties doing so. The company said it
| would cooperate with the European Commission's inquiry.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88e570a2-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
|
|
