We've Been Had! - 0 views
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There is nothing open about MOOXML, and it should have never made it to consideration as an international standard. But one has to ask, what is up with Sun? The John Bosak comment is just as much cause for concern as the fact that the nations of the world would dare consider OOXML as an international standard. All i can say is that we've been had. Sun and Microsoft have worked us royally, and only now, at the last moment, does the fog of confusion clear and we can see it all.
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Yeah. I said this! And i still think ODF has what it takes to become a universal file format. But only if the "interoperability enhancment" proposals are made part of the specification. You can't talk your way to universal interop. It has to go into the spec!
OBTW, for you idiots who think i support OOXML as a standard? You're idiots. I support the quest for a universal file format that is totally application, platform and vendor independent. The requirements, demands and criticisms we make of OOXML should be applied to every file format up for universal file format consideration. Including ODF. Including XHTML+ (XHTML, CSS3, RDF). Including the EU IDABC "ODEF".
The one area where i differ from most universal interoperability seekers is that i fully believe the big vendors have left open a loop hole we can exploit. The plugin architecture is fully able to convert a big vendors application to produce our beloved but elusive universal file format.
This is important because the big vendors control "interoperability" by contolling the big vendor standards consortia, and, the major applications. It's a double edged sword.
The ubiquitous plugin architecture enables universal interop seekers to exploit the applications any way we want. What's missing is a truly open "universal" standards process that is outside the reach of big vendors.
Personally i like the recent GPL3 process as a model on which to base emerging universal standards work. Somehow the big vendors must be neutralized. Otherwise, we;ll never see the universal inteop the world so desires.
idiots,
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The "Backwards Compatibility" issue is all the rage at ISO, with the September vote on MS OOXML just a month away.
Microsoft and Sun (We've Been Had!) are arguing that ISO should approve MS OOXML (Microsoft OfficeOpenXML) because OOXML offers a backwards compatibility with the legacy of existing billions of binary documents.
This oft sighted history of Microsoft's reprehensible business practices is worth citing once again before the nations of the world go down that treacherous path towards ratifying Microsoft's proprietary systems and products as international standards.
