[odf-discuss] Ecma Approves Office Open XML

[Carlos Moffat]

On Fri, 2006-12-08 at 15:26 -0800, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> 
> On 12/8/06, Pete Harlow <peter.harlow at gmail.com> wrote:
>         Ecma International Approves Office Open XML as Worldwide
>         Industry Standard.
>         
>         http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-07-2006/0004487682&EDATE=
> 
> Will someone please give me a reason to be hopeful and not blow my
> brains out over this news?  I'm being facetious, of course, but geez,
> I just didn't need bad news like this.  I sometimes feel that O'Brien,
> the bad guy in George Orwell's "1984" novel was correct when he said
> that, "The future is a boot stepping on a human face forever." 
> 
> To sort of answer my own question, of course ODF is probably way ahead
> of MOOX in adoption.  And of course GNU/Linux continues to progress
> steadily.  The Zune is just not selling.  The X-box is only barely
> profitable.  Microsoft continues to endure on the basis of selling
> software as a product (Windows and Office) and their entire empire is
> built on a business model which will be disrupted by SaaS.  And yet
> the borg just has so much money. 
> 
> And here's what scares me the most:  The Bill & Melinda Gates
> Foundation (BMGF).  BMGF was just a genius stroke on the part of the
> Borg.  1)  it's a huge PR score.  2)  It allows the Borg to dump
> useless licenses on the developing world, thereby 3) getting a tax
> break in the USA, at least, 4) thereby increasing its profitability,
> 5) and occupying space at the low end of the market, where the Borg
> was most vulnerable and FOSS was strongest. 
> 
> Sometimes the future just looks so dark to me.  Will someone please
> give me some hope?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 

Hi,

The news aren't exactly unexpected. Unless I'm missing something here,
OpenXML will become an ISO standard sooner or later. 

To be honest, I've been reading about this issue for a while. The way I
see it, by going through this process, Microsoft is really admitting to
the threat of ODF. So in a twisted sense, this is triumph of everybody
who's working on ODF. That's what makes Microsoft Microsoft: the ability
to strike back.

So now the real competition will start, now that the times of "ODF is
the only standard" are drawing to a close. Instead of despairing, we
should keep trying to make the case for ODF. I don't know about you, but
I feel so far the proponents of ODF have been really successful and, as
Thomas said in his blog, the adoption of ODF is going well.

At the end of the day, we will end up with two competing standards, at
least for a while. Did we ever expect Microsoft to give up without a
fight? 

Cheers,
Carlos