OSNews

//So when you look at Microsoft's stated purpose for OOXML:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OOXML
"Microsoft stated that its primary goal was backward compatibility with existing documents and full support of the feature set of Microsoft Office."

... well it turns out that ODF already achieves that goal. ODF is 100% able to provide "backward compatibility with existing documents and full support of the feature set of Microsoft Office" ... except just one. ODF does not support lock-in to Microsoft platforms.

//Releasing a file format into an international standard would be hard to show as an action in restraint of trade. Especially since Office has never been part of the previous monopoly rulings and it is not even certain that it is a monopoly.//

Microsoft stated this purpose for submitting OOXML: "Microsoft stated that its primary goal was backward compatibility with existing documents and full support of the feature set of Microsoft Office."

Microsoft also stated this as a reason for NOT using ODF, claiming that ODF could not support those goals.

... but it can. ODF has been demonstrated to fully meet those goals.

What is more, Microsoft knew it could. Microsoft engineers reportedly told Massachusetts that it would be trivial to implement ODF for MS Office.

What is worse, Microsoft never at any stage offered any proof that ODF lacked any features needed to support legacy MS Office documents. Microsoft just stated it (as often as they could) as fact, and expected everyone to believe that statement. This is known as the "big lie" technique in propaganda.

Further, Microsoft attended all of the ODF committee meetings, but as an observer only. The whole time, Microsoft said not one word. So if Microsoft truly believed that ODF could not fully support their legacy-format documents, then why did they simply not speak up? Just say: "you will need to add this or that feature". They didn't say anything of the sort. //

Some backup to this:
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/79593/index.html
"ODF can handle everything and anything Microsoft Office can throw at it. Including the legacy billions of binary documents, years of MSOffice bound business processes, and even tricky low level reaching add-ons represented by assistive technologies.

Microsoft refused to participate in the OASIS ODF development process, even though they have been an official member of the OASIS group since it's inception. As an "observer" MS has had full access to all discussions, meeting minutes, proposals, documents and white papers. It was their decision not to participate.

Now they claim that ODF is unable to handle the advanced feature set of MSOffice and the full conversion fidelity of those billions of binary documents to XML. This claim stands as the justification for their not participating in the ODF development process. And, more importantly, as the justification for ISO/IEC to adopt a second XML file format that does exactly what ISO 26300 (ODF) is designed to do.

That's extortion. Microsoft alone knows the secrets of the billions of binary documents and how to convert them to XML. They won't share that secret, forcing everyone else into cumbersome, workflow disruptive (lossy) and expensive reverse engineering. And then, after refusing to participate in the ODF process, they use that as an excuse to demand ISO/IEC consider as an international standard an XML encoding of their own proprietary binary file format.

Extortion with a complimentary kick in the teeth."

For those interested, here it is, ACME 376, a demo of the daVinci plugin and rival to ECMA 376.

http://opendocument.foundation.googlepages.com/home

Download and enjoy.

Edited 2007-01-29 04:31