Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 4th Sep 2007 21:40 UTC, submitted by archiesteel
Microsoft has failed in its attempt to have its Office Open XML document format fast-tracked straight to the status of an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization. The proposal must now be revised to take into account the negative comments made during the voting process. Microsoft expects that a second vote early next year will result in approval, it said Tuesday. That is by no means certain, however, given the objections raised by some national standards bodies.
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Member since:2006-03-10
QUOTE
What an open standard cannot have is dependencies on proprietary technologies. Especially unspecified proprietary technologies.
UNQUOTE
Well said..........
I totally agree with you here....
So I hope that the standards body will keep this in mind.
I think the FSF must start a campaign as well because you can expect MS to do the same. Countries that voted yes should be influenced to vote no. Especially the countries that have done this in a suspicious way.
Member since:2006-06-21
Countries that voted yes should be influenced to vote no. Especially the countries that have done this in a suspicious way.
It's very hard to do so. The countries that voted yes are mostly poor, corrupt countries where money will get you anything you want. Money talks there, not reason. Unless FFII is prepared to offer conter-bribes, fat chance of swaying the vote.
As it is, on the current vote OOXML was barred within very thin limits (a few percentage points on the no-vote for instance, it was 26% when 24% would have meant pass). Microsoft is right to expect the situation to hold in their favor in february. They will have a lot of time to consolidate their cronies and undermine ODF.
Of course, in the long term all those countries lose. They lock themselves in Microsoft's proprietary formats, lose any credibility with ISO, don't have a real open format to use. But as I said, it's not about being reasonable.
Member since:
2005-10-02
A format doesn't have to have all kind of functionality. A standard will always have weaknesses. And that's okay. That's why standards are updated from time to time.
What an open standard cannot have is dependencies on proprietary technologies. Especially unspecified proprietary technologies.
The fact that a standard have technical issues is not a reason to disapprove the standard - as long as the format is fully specified. A fully specified format doesn't have to have all kind of functionality. What functionality it DOES have MUST however be documented. ODF is fully documented, but have some weaknesses. OOXML is not fully documented, since parts of it is unspecified. Therefore it has been rejected.