[odf-discuss] Linspire's MOOX initiatives

[marbux]

It's the Novell OOXML plug-in for OOo developed in cooperation with Clever
Age-Microsoft. It's broken by design. Here is a statement attributed to
Steve Ballmer when the joint Novell-Microsoft project was announced:

Nor will the collaboration team attempt to build file converters that can
make files 100 percent compatible between the two file formats, he said. But
it will achieve the level of interoperability that customers can work with,
he said.

<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2050848,00.asp?kc=EWEWEMNL103006EP17A>

Here's another quote from a Microsoft document:

In addition, we've recently announced support for an open source project to
create a format translation tool between Open XML and the OpenDocument
Format (ODF). This translation tool will also be available via a free
download. Although file translation may not result in perfect document
fidelity because of format and product differences, it is the most effective
way to offer interoperability in a world where multiple file formats will
need to coexist.

<http://www.microsoft.com/interop/letters/new_world_of_docs.mspx>.

The last sentence quoted above is an out-and-out lie. Microsoft deliberately
chose an external process rather than using its native file support APIs,
which would be the "most effective way [for them] to offer
interoperability." As a result, the external process, which converts between
OOXML and ODF rather than directly from the Microsoft apps in-memory binary
representation of files has lousy conversion fidelity, can't allow ODF to be
set as the default file save format, isn't accessible through the normal
file open and save dialogs, and comes with numerous other warts.

It's a defense to the ECIS complaint against Microsoft with the EC's DG
Competition that alleges, inter alia, Microsoft antitrust violation by
refusal to support ODF. And it's also a defense to a potential anitrust
attack against the Microsoft-Novell and Microsoft-Sun deals for a market
allocation scheme prohibited by the Sherman Act, now coming to fruition via
Microsoft's recently announced efforts to drive OOo users to the proprietary
Sun and Novell OOo versions, where Sun and Novell pay royalties to Microsoft
on proprietary SO/OOo. See e,g, <
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm>,
where Microsoft claims OOo violates 45 patents and describes its attack on
customers using it. See also Palmer v. BRG of Georgia,
Inc.,<http://laws.findlaw.com/us/498/46.html>498
U.S. 46, 50 (1990) (per curiam) ("[s]uch agreements are anticompetitive
regardless of whether the parties split a market within which both do
business or whether they merely reserve one market for one and another for
the other"); *NCAA v. Board of Regents of Univ. of
Okla.,<http://laws.findlaw.com/us/468/85.html>
* 468 U.S. 85, 103 (1984) (a finding that a Sherman Act restraint of trade
is unreasonable may be "based either (1) on the nature or character of the
contracts, or (2) on surrounding circumstances giving rise to the inference
or presumption that they were intended to restrain trade and enhance
prices"), *quoting* *National Society of Professional Engineers v. United
States,* 435 U.S. 679, 692 (1978). And I'd say that Novell and Sun's
technology partner Microsoft driving users to proprietary SO/OOo using its
patent club where all three companies profit fairly raises that presumption
or inference. Of course Linspire and Xandros are the new partners in the
market allocation scheme.

The Novell-Clever Age plug-ins are to give companies' lawyers something to
talk about in court, not a serious effort to enable round-trip interop with
ODF applications. Think of it as the anti-interoperability interoperability
tool.

Best regards,

Marbux

On 7/11/07, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am assuming that this is not good news.  According to the two press
> releases below, the first from 1 july 2007 and the second from 11 July 2007,
> Linspire has a plug-in for making the ODF and MOOX work together.  (I prefer
> to call OOXML "MOOX" because I have been told that MOOX is neither open nor
> XML.)
>
> At any rate, I am assuming that Microsoft is doing this work because it
> breaks ODF somewhere, right?  Can someone give me a fairly simple newbie
> summary?  Thanks.  Consider this:  OOo and Audacity and a bunch of other
> FOSS apps work on Windows, so what is wrong with Linspire's work here?  Is
> it that it adopts MOOX as a standard and not ODF?  Or is it that this news
> gives Microsoft more evidence to suggest that MOOX should be an ISO
> standard?
>
> We are probably going to need to comment on this Linspire announcement at
> some time, so in the unlikely event that no one here heard of it yet, I
> wanted to show it to you.
>
> Here is the first press release from Linspire:
>
> Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire
> community desktop Linux operating systems, today announced it will join the
> current efforts to improve the ability of OpenOffice.org<http://www.openoffice.org/>users to work with the Office Open XML format by increasing the
> interoperability between ODF and Open XML.
>
> Linspire is joining with others who have signed on to this effort,
> including Novell and Xandros, to create bi-directional open source
> translators for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between ODF
> and Open XML. All future releases of Linspire and Freespire will include the
> bi-directional translators between ODF and Open XML. As a result, end users
> of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org will be able to more easily share
> files, as documents will better maintain consistent formats, formulas and
> style templates across the two office productivity suites.
>
> http://www.linspire.com/lindows_news_pressreleases_archives.php?id=220
>
> Here is the second press release.
>
> Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire
> community desktop Linux operating systems, today announced the immediate
> availability of the Open XML Translator within their latest released
> Freespire and Linspire products. Adding another interoperability tool to
> their core operating systems, the Open XML Translator enables bi-directional
> compatibility so that files saved in Open XML can be opened by OpenOffice
> users, and files created by OpenOffice to be saved in Open XML format. Last
> month, Linspire announced it had joined ongoing efforts to help create
> bi-directional open source translators for word processing, spreadsheets and
> presentations between ODF and Open XML.The result of these efforts are to
> improve the ability of OpenOffice.org users to work with the Office Open
> XML format by increasing the interoperability between ODF and Open XML
> formats. As a result, end users of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org<http://www.openoffice.org/>will now be able to more easily share files, as documents will better
> maintain consistent formats, formulas, and style templates across the two
> office productivity suites.
>
> http://www.linspire.com/lindows_news_pressreleases_archives.php?id=221
>
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