Enterprise applications Toolkit

Story: Raymond attacks Microsoft over OOXML fiasco

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who is lobbying????

1. Microsoft voted YES on both the ISO and ANSI certification of ODF and never lobbied against the standard.
2. IBM has been lobbying fiercely against OOXML even before Microsoft came up with their standard. They have been lobbying everywhere. Their goal is simple, prevent OOXML from being an ISO standard in order to have a talking point on governmental agencies and exclude Microsoft Office from being used. They clearly have a self-interest there and their position is not so altruistic in nature. Contrast this with Microsoft’s behavior on ODF. Microsoft should never had to resort on lobbying, if IBM did lobby against it. IBM is getting their bud kicked by Microsoft for so many decades now, when it comes to software and they found a new way of excluding Microsoft Office from being used. That’s the real story. I can only laugh when I hear about IBM’s interest in promoting open standards. Everybody knows this pure BS.
3. ODF had significant technical issues at the time of the vote. It was missing significant features.8 countries actually voted with comments. Most countries voted yes, because nobody really gave a damn about this standard at the time it was voted. ODF actually cruised on the ISO committee and did not receive the scrutiny that OOXXL is receiving. Again, nobody gave a damn about the standard. Preventing OOXML approval based on technical considerations is a double standard. Standards evolve in time and technical issues are being resolved in time. That’s what happened with ODF as well.

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