ODF is the Winner: Microsoft

I'm kinda worried when Microsoft themselves declare that ODF is the clear winner in the OOXML-ODF war.

However, I think I can agree with Microsoft. The whole ISO/OOXML saga gave ODF a huge boost both in terms of popularity and credibility. This means that more people and organizations are aware of ODF than ever before.

I've long learns not to take anything Microsoft says at face value, so I'm a bit concerned about the statement. Maybe the statement is genuine, but I can't help but think that Microsoft has something up their sleeve. Until they display they ace, I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

The MS-OOXML Standard

Venezuela appealed OOXML as well, following the lead of South Africa, Brazil and India. Norway has also filed a letter of protest.

Though the news is interesting, what I find even more interesting is that it seems that even discussion of OOXML usually leads to Microsoft and/or Office.

The reason why I find this interesting is that no other companies are ever mentioned as direct benefiters beyond Microsoft. If the standard is truly a standard, why is only one company's name attached to it.

It's true that Microsoft created the standard, but why is Corel or Apple — supposed backer of the standard — never mentioned? Why are so many headlines along the line of 'Microsoft looses OOXML war?'

I don't know about you, but that tells me that there is only one company that stood to win from OOXML, and that's Microsoft. Let's face the fact: Microsoft did not create OOXML out of the goodness of their heart, or with inter-compatibility in their mind. OOXML was simply another tool in their lock-in arsenal.

Though ODF, MS-OOXML's so-called competitor was created originally with OpenOffice in mind, it has grown and evolved thanks to their own standardization process. Companies like IBM, Novell, Sun Microsystem and Google all participate to the development of ODF.

In the case of OOXML, who gets to participates in its future development?

Here's a hint

This is one of the many reasons I cannot support any Microsoft-controlled technologies or standards. No matter how 'open' they claim to be, Microsoft develops in secrecy, and announces specific features as they are getting close to completion. This ensures that any competing project continuously have to play catch-up with Microsoft. The standards controlled by Microsoft are pegs in the sand, and it's Microsoft that chooses where to put those pegs.

Who wants to play a game against an opponent who is also the referee?

Good News All Abound

Yay!

OOXML has been formally appealed by South Africa, Brazil and India. Microsoft has announced that they will support ODF 1.1 in Office 2007. However, they will not even support OOXML until the next version of Office.

To keep up with the good news, Internet Explorer 8 will finally be standards compliant. As a web developer, this is such a relief! No more double standards for web pages.

Furthermore, thanks to the success of the Eee PC, Linux is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Desktop Linux is, in my (no so) humble opinion at a level that is above that of Windows and the Mac. Not only do you have choice, but if you compare the ease of use of Gnome or KDE, I think that Linux is a powerful contender. The only obstacle that remains is education. Windows users need to unlearn things like C:\ drives or the pain of running setup programs.

Finally, even Novell is reporting success in the Linux front. I took the plunge and installed Novell's openSUSE, and thus far I'm greatly enjoying it. As much as I like Ubuntu, I would hate for a single Linux distribution to become the 'defacto standard,' just like I would hate to see Gnome or KDE displace one or the other. Choice and competition are good.

I'm so excited to see real competition gearing up in the world of informatics. I'm afraid that the Microsoft monopoly has set us back a number of years from where we could be in terms of technology. For example, it if hadn't been for Internet Explorer slowing the adoption of standard HTML, then CSS, where would the web be now?

Oh well. That's water under the bridge. Now that we are freeing ourself from the Microsoft stranglehold, who know what real innovation we are going to see in the world of computing.

A Silver Lining?

Though it's clear and sunny here, I feel like there's a dark cloud hanging over us.

OOXML seems to have been 'approved.' This is bad on multiple accounts.

To begin with, this is a standard that would have never made the first round had it been any regular Joe that would have proposed it. Why? It's broken and riddled with issues.

Also, had it not been so desperately pushed by Microsoft, this 'standard' would most likely have been voted down by every nations world wide.

On the other hand, I'm seeing a silver lining in the cloud hanging over us. Microsoft is a brand that is losing it's positive image with corporations. In other words, they do not have the power that they used to have.

Furthermore, the EU said that it will investigate any possible manipulation by Microsoft into the Poland vote.

Poland is no longer the only country that is suspected of having been manipulated. The accusations are many.

• Germany
• Croatia
• Norway
• Sweden
• US

...and the list goes on.

My hope is that regulators (including ISO) will take a stand, and expose the manipulation that were done during those meeting. Hopefully, this will once and for all expose how Microsoft is desperate to maintain their illegal monopoly world wide.

Oh, and another silver lining to me, Canada voted no. Yay! I'm proud to wear my country's flag.

OOXML is a Bad Thing

Don't let Microsoft razzle-dazzle you. OOXML — the 'new' Microsoft Office format they are trying to push throught — is only good for Microsoft. Let me make that clear:

• It is not good for customers
• It is not good for business
• It is not good for developers

The only entity that is bound to win with OOXML is Microsoft. The reason is, there is already a office file format that is certified by ISO called ODF (Open Document Format). It is presently supported by OpenOffice.org, KOffice, and many other suites.
Why is ODF not supported in Microsoft Office? It's not because of technical limitation. Office supports file formats that are technically inferior to ODF like RTF and HTML.

Product and business competition is good for the customer. What would the world be like if you could not choose your car manufacturer (Ford, Honda, BMW, etc), your computer manifacturer (Dell, HP, Levono) or even your gas station? First of all, everybody would be riding the same car painted any colour as long as it's black. You could buy any computer that you want as long as it's a Dell. How little do you think Honda would charge for the Civic if it was the only compact available?

Microsoft has had an illegal monopoly in the world of operating system, office suite and web browser. In the past ten years, the changes that we have seen to their product has been minimal. However, as soon as the competition heated up, notice how much work Microsoft suddenly places in their product:

• Windows XP -> Windows Vista thanks to Mac OS X
• Microsoft Office 200X -> Microsoft Office 2007 thanks to OpenOffice.org
• Internet Explorer 6 -> Internet Explorer 7 thanks to Firefox

These innovations on either side were born out of free competition.

However, competing standards are bad, especially for customers.

Not good for Customers
Imagine a world where there are two CD formats. Two DVD format. Two gasoline types. How would the customer benefit from that? Well, the customer would have to make darn sure that they buy CDs that work with their CD players. Otherwise, they have spend money on a CD that cannot be used.
And what if that said customer purchased another CD player that is incompatible with the first. They can kiss their whole CD collection goodbye, since it won't play in the new player.
Sounds unlikely? It happened very recently where Sony & Microsoft (amongst many other companies) developed two standards: Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. Some customers spend thousands of dollars equipping themselves with HD-DVD, only to watch their market collapse, and their investment dissappear. Yes, they can still watch the movies their purchased, but no new movies will be released in HD-DVD.
Do you want the same thing to happen with your documents? Microsoft have changed the Office file format numerous time, and newer versions of Microsoft Office are sometimes unable to open files created in older version.
Who benefits here? The customer, or Microsoft. Hint: Who gets the money at the end of the day?

Not good for business
It may be a good news for developers looking for a job because now there are TWO file format to support. But what about the cost of doing business? Some clients or supplier may want to work with ODF. Others with OOXML. That pretty much doubles the development cost and time.
Of course, a company could alienate customers and suppliers by requesting a single format, but again, I don't think this is a sound solution.
There exists converters for one file format to another, but none are perfect. None can be perfect. Here's a simple experiment for you: Convert an MP3 to a WMA back to an MP3. What happens to the sound quality? It degrades. The same thing happens when we are converting from one office file format to another.

Not good for developers
I hate writing the same code twice. I hate solving the same problem twice. This is exactly what we are heading for.
I was quite excited when XML can to be. Before XML, I had to write so many file parser because everybody and their dog created a custom file format that had to be manually parsed. Now, thanks to XML and the DOM API (Document Object Model Application Programming Interface) to work with XML. I haven't wrote a single line of code to manually parse an XML document. Yay!
As a developer, I don't want to go back to the 'information stone age' by having to support multiple, incompatible standards. Thank you Microsoft for making my just so much more challenging. If Microsoft truly cared for us, ODF would have been supported in Office 2007.

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So why is Microsoft pushing their format thought? The answer is simple: Governments and organizations are starting to standardize on ODF because it's an open ISO standard. Microsoft refuses to support ODF because that will mean that users can now choose between Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, StarOffice, KOffice, Corel WordPerfect Office, etc. You get the point. Microsoft does not want to give you choice, they want to remove choice. God forbid you should spend your money elsewhere!

OOXML is meant to work with Microsoft Office and no other office suite on the market. It's a bloated, complex format that is laded with legacy. Working groups world wide have made 3,500 comments and raised a number of technical issues found in the 6,000+ pages of specifications provided by Microsoft. Think about it: 6,000+ pages. That's not for the weak of heart. On the other hand, ODF has 700+.

On March 29th, ISO will announce whether or not OOXML becomes a dual(ing) standard with ODF. This choice is made based on votes made by technical groups in various countries around the world. Microsoft has openly stuffed and bribed some committee to ensure that the vote goes through no matter what.

Thankfully, some countries like India and Cuba voted no. I'm hoping that many more countries (including Canada, my home and native land) will vote against the broken, half-complete standard that would exists to benefit a single organization: Microsoft.

Please visit NoOOXML.org and Gloklaw.net for more information.