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Paul Merrell

Microsoft offers Office 2010 file format 'ballot' to stop EU antitrust probe - 0 views

www.computerworld.com/...lot_to_stop_EU_antitrust_probe

Microsoft European Commission antitrust office productivity undertaking

shared by Paul Merrell on 07 Aug 09 - No snapshot
  • Paul Merrell
    Paul Merrell on 07 Aug 09
     
    Microsoft's proposed undertaking for resolving the ECIS complaint to the European Commission regarding its office productivity software can be downloaded from this linked web page. I've given it a quick skim. Didn't see anything in it for anyone but competing big vendors. E.g., no profiling of data formats for interop of less and more featureful implementations, no round-tripping provisions. Still, some major concessions offered.
Gary Edwards

EU's Kroes says further technology antitrust abuse cases pending UPDATE - Forbes.com - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...afx5098515.html

antitrust eu interop kroes odf ooxml

shared by Gary Edwards on 12 Jun 08 - Snapshot

  • The commission said that as part of its antitrust investigation into interoperability with Microsoft Office it will investigate whether the announced support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice.


    Kroes said on Tuesday that the commission keeps a close eye on interoperability and said the market should have the right balance of non-propriety and propriety standards.


    'Standards are the foundation of interoperability'. 'Standards may, of course, be proprietary or non-proprietary. Much excellent technical development has been driven by non-proprietary standards - the internet is awash with acronyms for non-proprietary standards: HTTP, HTML and XML'.

  • Gary Edwards
    Gary Edwards on 12 Jun 08
     
    I wonder if the EU is aware that there is no such thing as ODF Interoperability? After more than five years of working side by side with Sun on the OASIS ODF TC, there is zero interop between KOffice ODF and OpenOffice ODF! How is it that Microsoft's joining the ODF TC somehow results in a level of application interop that has eluded and defied the efforts of two supposedly open source applications?

    The truth is that OpenOffice-ODF and MSOffice-OOXMl are both based on an XML encoding of the application specific binary dump. The content layers are easily exchanged with other applications, but presentation continues to defy any kind of interop. Especially what the EU expects. Check out the quotes:

    " The commission said that as part of its antitrust investigation into interoperability with Microsoft Office it will investigate whether the announced support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice.

    "Kroes said on Tuesday that the commission keeps a close eye on interoperability and said the market should have the right balance of non-propriety and propriety standards.

    'Standards are the foundation of interoperability'. 'Standards may, of course, be proprietary or non-proprietary. Much excellent technical development has been driven by non-proprietary standards - the internet is awash with acronyms for non-proprietary standards: HTTP, HTML and XML'.
Gary Edwards

Bill Gates on "Office Rendering": MS push to the Web and the control of formats and protoc... - 0 views

boycottnovell.com/...msg00005.html

antitrust billgates comes iowa

shared by Gary Edwards on 30 May 08 - Snapshot
  • Gary Edwards
    Gary Edwards on 30 May 08
     
    The Bill Gates "Office Rendering" email from the IOWA-Comes vs Microsoft antitrust case
Paul Merrell

Microsoft Embraces ODF, At Last [on Simon Phipps, SunMink] - 0 views

blogs.sun.com/...microsoft_embraces_odf_at_last

antitrust microsoft odf sun

shared by Paul Merrell on 23 May 08 - Snapshot
  • Of course, I might also reflect on the fact they are finally doing exactly what Stephe Walli said they ought to do to kill ODF. But for now, it's huge, warm congratulations on giving your customers the freedom to leave and the confidence to stay - and a small British mutter of "about bloody time".
    • Paul Merrell
      Paul Merrell on 23 May 08
       
      If one reads the linked piece from 2005 by former Microsoft exec
      Stephen Walli, ,
      one may only scratch one's head over Phipps' "small British mutter of 'about bloody time.'" It seems to read as an endorsement of Microsoft killing ODF.
Paul Merrell

Rapid - Press Releases - EUROPA - 0 views

europa.eu/...pressReleasesAction.do

antitrust microsoft odf

shared by Paul Merrell on 22 May 08 - Snapshot
  • The European Commission has taken note of Microsoft's announcement on
    21st May concerning supporting ODF in Office. The Commission would
    welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more
    consumer choice and less vendor lock-in. In its ongoing antitrust investigation
    concerning interoperability with Microsoft Office (see MEMO/08/19),
    the Commission will investigate whether the announced support of ODF
    (OpenDocument format) in Office leads to better interoperability and allows
    consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of
    their choice.
  • Paul Merrell
    Paul Merrell on 22 May 08
     
    The European Commission has taken note of Microsoft's announcement on 21st May concerning supporting ODF in Office. The Commission would welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more consumer choice and less vendor lock-in. In its ongoing antitrust investigation concerning interoperability with Microsoft Office (see MEMO/08/19), the Commission will investigate whether the announced support of ODF (OpenDocument format) in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice.
Paul Merrell

EU Will Probe Microsoft Support For Open Source File Format - 0 views

money.cnn.com/...NESDJONLINE000403_FORTUNE5.htm

antitrust dg competion microsoft

shared by Paul Merrell on 22 May 08 - Snapshot
  • Paul Merrell
    Paul Merrell on 22 May 08
     
    BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission said late Wednesday it would investigate whether a new plan by Microsoft that will allow users to save and edit files in formats developed by rivals leads to greater consumer choice.

    Microsoft's announcement Wednesday it would support Open Document Format, used in open source programs, for its suite of Office programs is a concession to European regulators and others, who have complained that Microsoft's refusal to adopt the format has prevented competition in desktop software.

    "The commission will investigate whether the announced support of Open Document Format in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice," the commission said in a statement.
Gary Edwards

Groklaw - Microsoft, antitrust and innovation, by Georg Greve - 0 views

www.groklaw.net/article.php

antitrust interoperability microsoft odf

shared by Gary Edwards on 27 Sep 07 - Snapshot
  • Interoperability:



    The second abusive practice the Commission found Microsoft guilty of is the
    deliberate obstruction of interoperability, generally achieved through
    arbitrary and willful modification of Open Standards. This makes it
    impossible for competitors to write interoperable software. This is to
    the detriment of customers, who find themselves locked into the
    products of one vendor, the antithesis of competition.

  • It might look much worse in the light of public statements that
    Microsoft will
    not even commit     to standards that it has proposed itself, such as
    the recent Microsoft
    OfficeOpenXML (OOXML)     format it wants approved by ISO.



    The less people talk about the interoperability side of the case, the
    better for Microsoft. Otherwise people might connect MS-OOXML to the
    fact that Microsoft initiated the standardisation effort in the
    workgroup server area to open the market and later started
    obstruction of interoperability on its own standard to drive the
    innovator out of the market.

    • Gary Edwards
      Gary Edwards on 27 Sep 07
       
      Great point. I think tha tanytime a big vendor embraces an open standard they should committ to full public documentation and explanation of any eXtensions to their implementaiton of that standard. Interoperability matters!
  • Gary Edwards
    Gary Edwards on 27 Sep 07
     
    Excellent explanation of Microsoft's problems in Europe.  One can only hope that the successor to the Bush Administration is paying attention. 
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