[odf-discuss] Gnome, Ecma, and what governments (and FOSS?) should have done

[Pamela Jones]

It's an issue that came up in the first vote discussions repeatedly. 
Here is just one example from the meeting in Australia, where the MS 
representative and CompTIA both mentioned that MS OOXML should qualify 
because so many others want it and use it.  Isn't this Open Document 
Fellowship a proODF group?  how can you not know these things?  Here's 
what Greg Stone said to pitch OOXML, from notes from a guy who attended 
and wrote about it for Groklaw:
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Next was Microsoft. Greg Stone spoke for Microsoft there was also 2 
other Microsoft staff there. Stated did not want to get into technical 
aspects, said that ODF and OOXML are not competing standards but fit for 
different purposes. A goal was for a clearer spec believe that trying to 
accommodate requests is why it has blown out from a initial size of 2000 
pages to 6000 pages.

Talked a lot about legacy support and that is why the spec needs this 
and that, seemed to imply it allows support of the old binary formats 
even though it does not describe them . Noticed they called it OpenXML 
the same as Rick Jelliffe did in his presentation. Microsoft mentioned 
Rick several times in his presentation.

Talked more about requirements to work with backend systems rather than 
document fidelity, also mentioned a Linux Java app that can use OOXML 
acting on the structured data. Believes requirements are different now 
than they were in the past years. Had a slide with many examples of 
support of OOXML including the ODF converters etc, did not explain how 
ODF converters can work when one of the reasons that they do not like 
ODF is that it has deficiencies that meant it is not suitable for 
Microsoft to use. Believe that any vendor can operate on a equal footing 
with OOXML. Talked about support from Apple IPhone (did not mention the 
issues they are having with OOXML support on OSX). Believes that 
Microsoft's Open Specification Promise is as good as Sun's patent promise.

CompTIA was represented by Danaka Bakailch and were pro OOXML mentioned 
they have 25000 corporate members and gave the impression that she was 
speaking on behalf of the member companies. Kaaren from IBM asked how 
this position was arrived at as IBM is a member and does not agree with 
that position(Sun is also a member), I don't believe CompTIA adequately 
explained how they arrived at this position. Claimed it was feedback 
from members but this was disputed.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070809103920651
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Daniel Carrera wrote:
> From: Pamela Jones <pj at groklaw.net>
> 
>> Yes, they do.  Popularity is a way to answer the complaint that MS OOXML 
>> is only for Windows. They have to break that perception.
> 
> Which national body raised that particular complaint? If one of the conflicts raised by a national body is that OOXML is not supported outside Windows I will stand corrected.
> 
> Daniel.
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