[LF's President, Jim Zemlin:] It’s Been a Tough Week for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| It has been a tough week for Microsoft. This morning the E.U. announced it is
| imposing a 1.3 billion dollar fine on the company because Microsoft
| had “charged unreasonable prices for access to interface documentation for
| work group servers” and that it had abused its dominant position under
| Article 82 of the EC Treaty. That is not something any company wants to hear
| the week after announcing, “new interoperability principles and actions will
| increase openness of key products” and on the day of Windows Server
| 2008’s “Heroes Happen Here” launch event.
`----
http://www.linux-foundation.org/weblogs/jzemlin/2008/02/27/it%E2%80%99s-been-a-tough-week-for-microsoft/
BRM in Geneva is over: big failure for OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Only ten national delegations voted, and only 4 P-members were for approval.
| 4 P-members disapproved, a whopping 15 abstained, and 2 even refused to
| register a vote in protest.
|
| If you count all voting delegates, including those who are not P members, the
| vote was 6 approvals, 4 disapprovals, 18 abstentions and 4 refusals to vote.
| Expect this to be announced by Microsoft as a "3 to 2 majority for OOXML
| approval" in the next few hours. The reality is of course that this is a huge
| setback for Microsoft. The tricks they have been trying have backfired, and
| it is now more clear than ever before that OOXML is an immature specification
| which was totally inappropriate for the fast track procedure.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-44119/brm-in-geneva-was-a-big-failure-for-ooxml
"BRM in Geneva is over: big failure for OOXML"
,----[ Quote ]
| BRM in Geneva is over: big failure for OOXML
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/brm-in-geneva-i.html
Tim Bray: "process was complete, utter, unadulterated bullshit"
,----[ Quote ]
| The Canadian BRM delegate Tim Bray strongly criticised the ISO process while
| he doesn't blame the BRM failure on ISO but on the vendor that used the ECMA
| proxy.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-44211/tim-bray:process-was-complete-utter-unadulterated-bullshit
Yesterday:
Showdown in Geneva: OOXML Fails to Achieve Majority Approval at BRM
,----[ Quote ]
| Many, many, people around the world have tried very hard to make the OOXML
| adoption process work. It is very unfortunate that they were put to this
| predictably unsuccessful result through the self-interest of a single vendor
| taking advantage of a permissive process that was never intended to be abused
| in this fashion. It would be highly inappropriate to compound this error by
| approving a clearly unfinished specification in the voting period ahead. To
| paraphrase a former First Lady, it's time to "Just say No" to OOXML.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080229055319727
OOXML Fails to Get Majority Approval at BRM - Updated 2Xs
,----[ Quote ]
| Andy Updegrove has the results in detail here, including a breakdown of the
| votes. Basically, there were too many proposed changes to be able to cover
| them in the BRM, so they tried a workaround, but the upshot is ... it's a
| mess. Oddly, despite the rules, Alex Brown, Updegrove reports, allowed non P
| countries to vote, but OOXML still couldn't get a majority of the delegations
| to back it at the BRM. Nor is it clear that allowing non P countries to vote
| is even legitimate. Now it's the 30-day voting period, but Updegrove asks, if
| they never could discuss all the issues, which is the purpose of a BRM,
| what's the basis for a vote? And with the vast majority either voting to
| abstain or even refusing to vote as a protest, I think one may conclude this
| proposal didn't belong on the fast track, and it isn't getting the kind of
| support you would have thought it might, given all the muscle that has gone
| into the push to get OOXML approved.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080229124919217
Bureaucracy swamps ISO meeting on Microsoft format
,----[ Quote ]
| Instead, the ballot resolution meeting became bogged down in bureaucracy as
| the delegates struggled with more than a thousand points of order, as well as
| the 6,000 pages of code that define Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML)
| format.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2923321820080229
Weak ISO support for changes to Open XML throws shadow over final approval
,----[ Quote ]
| A committee of ISO members in Geneva may have approved the proposed changes
| to Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) on Friday, but the document format's
| final approval remains far from certain.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9065958
Related:
Microsoft’s secretive standards orgs in Former Yugoslavia
,----[ Quote ]
| Croatian laws keep its national body’s votes secret, so the only way for the
| Croatian public to find out how the process went would be if a board member
| illegally leaked information out of CSI. This is, of course, unlikely to
| happen. And the Serbian national standardization body is not officially
| formed, so those two votes were easy for Microsoft, and probably not only
| ones around the globe.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/092407-ooxml.html?page=1
Microsoft Tech Ed 2007: OpenXML
,----[ Quote ]
| He was asked "Why did Microsoft push OOXML through the "Fast Track" process
| instead of the standard ISO process? Wouldn't they get less resistance than
| faced now?"
|
| His response was very frank: "Office is a USD$10 billion revenue generator
| for the company. When ODF was made an ISO standard, Microsoft had to react
| quickly as certain governments have procurement policies which prefer ISO
| standards. Ecma and OASIS are 'international standards', but ISO is the
| international 'Gold Standard'. Microsoft therefore had to rush this standard
| through. Its a simple matter of commercial interests!"
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/09/microsoft-tech-.html
http://picandocodigo.linuxuruguay.org/index.php/2007/08/29/uruguay-vota-si-al-ooxml/
Evidence of Microsoft Influencing OOXML Votes in Nordic States
,----[ Quote ]
| "This is how a standard is bought," Bosson wrote later. "I left the meeting
| in protest - pissed off."
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/Evidence_of_Microsoft_Influencing_OOXML_Votes_in_Nordic_States/1188335569
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=686119
Microsoft Memo to Partners in Sweden Surfaces: Vote Yes for OOXML - Updated
,----[ Quote ]
| He acknowledges that the rules might need to be changed.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070829070630660
The OOXML Problem
,----[ Quote ]
| Another thing, by introducing a "new fancy" document format, MS can hold a
| tighter grip round existing customers and get more on the false pretence that
| they've "opened up".
`----
http://phun-ky.net/2007/08/the-ooxml-problem
Rejecting OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| All the CIOs say they want is XML documents; unfortunately they aren't as
| aware as Georg Greve, above, that Microsoft's implementation of XML is
| exceedingly half-hearted.
`----
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/08/rejecting-ooxml.html
|
|
