Office applications Toolkit

Story: ISO calls for end to OOXML 'personal attacks'

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Mostly right, with critical exceptions

First, I agree with most of what you say about standards in general, and even about Microsoft in general. I also agree with David Long, that Microsoft is getting a lot of bashing over this which other "currently fashionable" companies wouldn't get. That may or may not be deserved, based on previous behavior, but I would point out that if Apple tries a few more tricks like "bundling" Safari with iTunes, they are likely to be climbing into the same boat.

I could write a lot more about past behavior or manipulation of the standards process, but the bottom line is, things Microsoft has done in the past with C++, Java, WMF, PDF, Flash and now ODF do not cause me to have a lot of trust in their good intentions. However, you are right, a lot of people (including me) use Windows and Office because, for many years, they worked when nothing else did. I have said many, many times over the years that I would LOVE to switch from Windows to a Mac - but I couldn't, because I couldn't get the things that I needed on a Mac. Likewise, I have tried so many versions of Linux (and Minix, if anyone remembers what that was), and could never get one to work properly and provide the things that I need on my laptops. But just as past misbehavior by Microsoft doesn't mean that everyone should despise them and toss all of their products, past success should not give them license to do anything they want now.

There is a certain responsibility when you control the market and wield the power that Microsoft does, and the very questionable events around this ISO standard do not give the impression that Microsoft is respecting that responsibility.

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