Should ISO throw out OOXML?
According to several reports this morning, the EU (god bless ’em) are digging deeply into Microsoft’s attempts to steamroller OOXML through the ISO last September.
As part of its battle against proponents of ODF – which was approved as the ISO standard last year – Redmond swelled the ranks of standards bodies with Microsoft allies in the hope of ratifying its Office file format as the default standard for international use.
Microsoft had tried to fast-track OOXML via Ecma International, the group which originally rubber-stamped the format. However, a vote of the draft (DIS 29500) failed to gain sufficient approval last September.
According to the Wall Street Journal, EU officials are now considering if Microsoft’s actions – which came under fire from critics who accused the firm of underhand tactics and even vote-rigging – were illegal.
The timing of this release couldn’t really be better for the “no campaign“. Just a few weeks before the NBs (National Standards Bodies) meet to discuss the proposed resolutions to the 3522 comments raised against the specification, this can only help to fuel the concern of many that Microsoft are endeavouring to push through not just simply a flawed standard, but one whose sole intention is to prolong their lock-in of customers (and so maintain their Office cash cow) with proprietary and binary storage methods and Intellectual Monopoly.
Please let your national body know that the EU obviously has some serious concerns about Microsoft’s intentions with their OOXML proposition.
Personally, I think enough is enough. The ISO should drop this whole fiasco like a ton of bricks, throw out dis29500 and force Microsoft, and their puppet ECMA, to go through the normal processes and abide by the normal rules. Just like Adobe did with PDF…
Thanks to Matt Assay’s blog where I first read about this.
[Update] Here’s something I found quite amusing whilst getting the urls for this item. If you search Google for “no ooxml” see what the ad is that crops up? I’m not going to spoil your fun, but please click on it! 😉
OOXML: Your flexible file format
I noted this post on Bob Sutor’s blog and thought it definately warranted promoting.
As he says this should be obvious to everyone (it certainly is to BECTA here in the UK) but, just perhaps, some people are being misled into thinking that OXML is OOXML is OOXML….
Saving your documents in OOXML format right now is probably about the riskiest thing you can do if you are concerned with long term interoperability.
Bob goes on to say:
First, the “official†ECMA OOXML that was submitted to ISO is not what Microsoft implements in Office 2007. So unless your application reverse-engineered Office 2007’s support, you’ve got interoperability problems right there.
Second, the ECMA spec is over 6000 pages long, there were thousands of comments, and thousands of pages of proposed resolutions to those comments. And that’s just from Microsoft. Others will go to the BRM with different proposals, and further ideas may come up there. Not everything may be addressed at the BRM.
Nobody has the vaguest idea what OOXML will look like in February or even whether it will be in any sort of stable condition by the end of March. Major features may be deprecated. Completely different solutions may be proposed. And at the end, the whole thing may be rejected, just as it was done in September.
So that OOXML format that you are saving files in right now is dead and will be replaced, unless Microsoft decides it won’t bother implementing what comes out of the ISO process. Indeed, if the ballot finally fails, I’m not sure what Microsoft will do with all the suggested comments.
Nice one Bob. I thought this was pretty obvious too but it can’t hurt to explain it to the public. Microsoft certainly won’t.
Did Steve Ballmer Just Die?
I’m not sure what to make of this really…
Microsoft, through ECMA (the body currently dealing with DIS29500) announced today that it is going to:
… in response to requests for even easier access to the Binary Formats, Microsoft has agreed to remove any intermediate steps necessary to get the documentation, and will post it and make it directly available for a direct download on the Microsoft web site. Microsoft will also make the Binary Formats subject to its Open Specification Promise (see www.microsoft.com/interop/osp) by February 15, 2008.
In plain English, they are basically stating that they are going to make publicly available the specifications for their legacy [Update. that was my assumption. Discussion already suggests that they are in fact ONLY releasing access to Office 2007 binary formats] Office binary file formats. There are a few questions I’d be interested in getting answers to about this statement.
- Which versions of their Office Binary Formats will be published?
- What does their OSP (Open Specification Promise) really mean? Especially in relation to the GPL.
- Why and why now…?
The published reason is that because there are so many statements in the DIS29500 spec that refer to instructions like “doLineBreaksLikeWord95” that they really didn’t have much of an option. Either include all the old specs as part of DIS29500 or make them available elsewhere.
If Microsoft are really genuine about this, and the OSP stacks up and enables developers to use the information with GPL licenced software then, quite frankly, I applaud their decision even though I am quite amazed by it.
Of course we have just had the announcement by the EU regarding two new investigations into Microsoft’s monopoly and abuse thereof; one of which is specifically to do with Office file formats. So could this also be an attempt to deflect the EU investigators? Only time will tell I guess.
The second significant announcement they have made relates to the setting up of an Open Source project:
Microsoft have agreed to:
Initiate a Binary Format-to-ISO/IEC JTC 1 DIS 29500 Translator Project on the open source software development web site SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/ ) in collaboration with independent software vendors. The Translator Project will create software tools, plus guidance, showing how a document written using the Binary Formats can be translated to DIS 29500. The Translator will be available under the open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license, and anyone can use the mapping, submit bugs and feedback, or contribute to the Project. The Translator Project will start on February 15, 2008.
That is quite an amazing statement from Microsoft. The BSD license is an interesting choice. It is very business friendly. But what this really says to me is:
- that Microsoft have had enough of trying to do this [manage multiple file formats, ad nausea] on their own.
- their own converter isn’t that good!
- there are too many requests for a platform independent or agnostic converter (Mac, Linux, OpenBSD and mobile platforms etc etc etc). Obviously Microsoft couldn’t really write a converter for Linux now could they?
There are some good comments below Brian’s post, with some confusion about OSP and GPL compatibility, but on the whole most people’s reaction seems positive.
I find myself in the strange position of having to agree. They should probably be encouraged and praised for these decisions; although I can’t help but think there is a sting-in-the-tail somewhere…
But how on earth have they managed to actually do this is what gets me – has Steve Ballmer just died or something?
A REALLY BIG day for OOXML [Updated (or is it deprecated?)]
Today the 14th January 2008 is actually quite a BIG day. Two things have happened that are not directly related but may well, ultimately, have a very positive cumulative effect for us all.
The first thing is ECMA must present, to the voting bodies (NBs) of ISO that will decide the fate of DIS29500, their deliberations and suggested alterations on the 3522 comments which were given during the fast track review period last year.
Update: It has come to my attention that ECMA has issued the dispositions for all 3522 comments. As they are password protected and not for public consumption I couldn’t possibly have seen them but from what I can gather, large parts of the OOXML specification have been moved into a deprecated annex. How long before Office 2007 supports what is effectively a new DIS29500 remains to be seen. If of course, Microshaft decide to bother that is.
That the proposed specification should never have been fast-tracked (it was not ready, full of errors and inconsistencies and worse), or that Microsoft tried to bribe and corrupt their way through the ISO processes to ensure that it passed (and it still failed because it was so bad), is now neither here nor there.
There is to be a meeting in Geneva next month called a BRM (Ballot Resolution Meeting) where members will participate in the review of ECMA’s suggestions for amendments and changes to DIS29500. After the meeting (which only lasts 5 days) the members will have 30 days to decide if they should change their September vote.
One can only begin to imagine what will be going on in the countries that have been Microsoft’s puppet before and those which have so far resisted the borg’s influence. There are already stories of high skulduggery appearing.
The blogosphere is already starting to hot up again for this topic. Here’s a few good links to get you in the mood for what is to come.
Rob Weir (An Antic Disposition),
No OOXML
Groklaw
Open Forum Europe
The second event to have occurred today which may well have a bearing is the EU’s decision to start two more investigations into Microsoft’s anti-competitive practises and more specifically:
The European Commission has decided to initiate two formal antitrust investigations against Microsoft Corp concerning two separate categories of alleged infringements of EC Treaty rules on abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82). The first case where proceedings have been opened is in the field of interoperability in relation to a complaint by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS). The second area where proceedings have been opened is in the field of tying of separate software products following inter alia a complaint by Opera.
The Interoperability investigation is explained thus:
In the complaint by ECIS, Microsoft is alleged to have illegally refused to disclose interoperability information across a broad range of products, including information related to its Office suite, a number of its server products, and also in relation to the so called .NET Framework. The Commission’s examination will therefore focus on all these areas, including the question whether Microsoft’s new file format Office Open XML, as implemented in Office, is sufficiently interoperable with competitors’ products.
So they want to find out if their new file format (OOXML) is actually implementable by anyone else or is just a smokescreen to make them appear to be playing ball. As usual Groklaw does some in-depth analysis of these issues (where you will always get a good read).
Oh Goody. This will keep us all busy for a while…
And who knows, the EU and the ISO might just both get it right 🙂
OOXML Questions Microsoft Cannot Answer in Geneva
Here is a great summary of the stuff that Microsoft cannot or will not deal with for Geneva’s BRM.
OOXML Questions Microsoft Cannot Answer in Geneva
Written by Charles H Schultz, Russell Ossendryver and Lars Nooden. Spread the word and let your NB’s take a look before they go to Geneva.
How to force users to upgrade – the Microsoft Way.
For those of you who thought that Microsoft really did have your best interests at heart and believed my constant harping on about their terrible OOXML spec was just the ranting of a sad old geek; well, I think they have just proved my point for me…
A couple of months ago, Microsoft released one of their admirably named Service Packs: SP3 for Office 2003. Apart from fixing (I assume) a number of bugs, this particular SP introduced a great new feature – it disabled access to about 24 previously supported file formats! Microsoft themselves suggest that this is for your own security and benefit, but unsurprisingly, many users do not seem to agree with this. And Rob Weir’s analysis demonstrates just how bad Microsoft are at lying yet again..
Taken from this computerworld article
Among the blocked files are older Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats, as well as older formats used by Lotus 1-2-3 and Corel Corp.’s Quattro Pro — a pair of ancient and ageing spreadsheets — and Corel Draw, an illustration program. Word 2003 with SP3, in fact, blocks a staggering 24 former formats, according to Microsoft, including the default word processing file format for Office 2004 for Mac, the currently available edition of Microsoft’s application suite for Mac OS X.
Although for me, the final proof is here:
In a posting to a company blog yesterday, Tarpara recommended that rather than monkey with the registry, users convert documents in bulk to the OpenXML format — Office 2007’s default format — using the tools in the Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) kit, which can be downloaded from Microsoft’s site. “OMPM is great because it doesn’t overwrite the original files at all, it simply makes a copy of the file in the new file format so there is no risk,” said Tarpara.
So, let’s get this straight… Microsoft release a service pack that renders your application useless with 24 file formats which it was O.K. with before you applied the pack. You can’t uninstall the Service Pack. The “fix” is dangerous and not supported by Microsoft. Their “solution” is to migrate all your documents to their new Office file format which – guess what – is the default for Office 2007! Hows that for trying to cajole people into spending more money on yet another application?
And let’s not forget that Microsoft are still trying to force their new OOXML spec through the ISO and that currently, ECMA are marking whole swathes of the specification deprecated so those areas do not have to be published or publicly documented as part of the ISO standard. Also, M$ have said before that they might not even implement what ECMA manages to get passed ISO (if it passes) but stick to their own proprietary format. So when Office 2010 comes out you’d better get your wallet ready; for once Service Pack 3 appears for Office 2007 you’ll need to upgrade…
