Validate this?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| devnet May 19, 2007 3:48 PM EDT |
Are there any Links to support this? I'm finding nothing on MS's website...and this is the only reference to this news I've seen. |
| tracyanne May 19, 2007 4:01 PM EDT |
Quoting:"We have listened to our customers, and they have told us they want choice, they want interoperability, they want innovation," said Tom Robertson, general manager for Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft, in a press release. "The American National Standards list does not include a number of document format standards in wide use today, such as PDF, .DOC, RTF and HTML. The inclusion of ODF is just the beginning; we expect the list will grow in the future to reflect the choices customers already have in today's marketplace." It's interesting to note the way in which Microsoft twist the desire for choice and interoperability to mean choosing between Microsoft's free in name only standard and a genuinely free standard, when in reality people want a free and ubiquitous standard that can be relied on to always be free, and choice of what platform or application they will use that standard on. |
| jezuch May 19, 2007 4:13 PM EDT |
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?stor... It was on Lxer yesterday :) (or two days ago... screw those time zones!) |
| bigg May 19, 2007 4:18 PM EDT |
When you're not a monopolist, it's amazing how things change. They will do a good job of working with other companies until they are able to leverage their OS monopoly to lock you in. They're just hoping that if they play nice for a few months, the political winds will change, and they can get governments to give up on their hopes of using open formats. |
| devnet May 19, 2007 7:01 PM EDT |
jezuch, thanks...I missed that. Of course, I've been working hard lately and haven't been at my normal PC (dialup access remotely :( ) |
| Sander_Marechal May 20, 2007 12:00 AM EDT |
There was a nice explanation on Groklaw about this. Basically, MS is sending a signal to IBM and other ODF alliance companies: "We're supporting your standard without a fuss. Now you support ours". It basically wants to discourage people from commenting on the ISO draft and stop negative votes in the ISO and ANSI committees. All under the guise of "choice is good". Choice of application and implementation is good. Choice of standard is not. Imagine having two standards for powersockets in your country, and everytime you bought something you'd have to make sure the powerplug matched whatever socket type you have in your house. It never stops amazing me how MS can spin a bad thing to sound good. Then again, it's a marketing company so it should be expected. |
| dinotrac May 20, 2007 5:08 AM EDT |
>"We're supporting your standard without a fuss. Now you support ours". I think that's close, but not quite on the money. When you don't have the votes to beat something, you have to look at the next battle. Microsoft's dissenting vote wouldn't change the outcome, so they voted to accept. Now, when they lobby legislators or make public pitches, they can highlight their support of free and open standards -- including those of competitors. People opposing OOXML will look unreasonable by comparison. |
| dcparris May 20, 2007 8:08 AM EDT |
I really, really, really hate to admit this - especially publicly - but dino is a pretty smart guy. Sometimes. ;-) |
| hkwint May 20, 2007 1:12 PM EDT |
Hey, Sander, you just unveiled Microsoft's secret plan: Choice of 100+ power sockets, but only Microsoft computers being able to be plugged in. In Microsoft words: Choice is good! |
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