Say no to the new Office documents format!
Microsoft is introducing a new format for Office documents, called OOXML. It stands for "Office Open XML" and it should become a standard in the near future.
The reason why Microsoft has decided to substitute its .doc, .xls, etc... apparently is that they want to switch from a binary document to a plain text one; that is, it should be easier for competitors to read and write the same format.
But this simply is not correct!
Microsoft is creating a new standard that only its software can read and write: in fact, OOXML cannot be implemented by anyone else since it is covered by patents and it contains binary data (!!!).
So OOXXML:
1. Is not a standard: there is already a "Office Open XML" and it is called ODF, which is supported by OpenOffice. So there's no need for OOXML!
2. Is not open: the implementation of OOXML is described in 6000 pages, how can one implement it? Moreover OOXML is protected by some patents and its implementation omisses important details... even if you wanted you couldn't implement OOXML in your program!
3. Is not XML: OOXML, which should be pure XML, contains binary data, whose handling is not described in the standard. This is another proof that only Microsoft will be able to read and write OOXML.
SAY NO TO THIS FREAKIN FORMAT!
SIGN THE PETITION!
4 comments:
Hi, I've some toughts about this argument.
The standardization project is just started, that means Microsoft need probably to review OOXML before the completation of the standardization path. So it' s true that there actually are problems.
Your sentence about patents it's not correct. If OOXML will become a standard than Microsoft will ensures everybody the possibility to implement it royalties free and this can be true also if there are patents on the implementation and Microsoft has already declare that the format will be completly free.
1) how many standards are there for electronic format and protocolos? The existence of ODF is not an important reason not to make OOXML a standard;
2) I've already reported some thoughts above;
3) ODF it's an XML format. On the other hand it is a compressed archive conteining XML files and binary files.
Microsoft will release whole materials on OOXML only if it would become a standard, if OOXML woudln't be standard there is no need to release the whole documentation.
I forgot something. PDF is an ISO standard completly coverd by patents. Apple can implement it in its OS and Microsoft has to pay Adobe (the patents holder) to implements PDF in Windows.
Is it a correct behavior?
The reason why M$ has to pay Adobe is because it wants to change the format.
History repeating: M$ already has done it with Java (JVM) so I agree with Adobe; they must not let M$ monopolize PDF... do you want PDFs only readable on Windows?
Certainly MS still has time to improve it.
But if Microsoft really wanted to switch to an interoperable file format they would have adopted ODF, wouldn't they?
ODF is a well structered format: it simply is a ZIP file; once unzipped it is a folder with XML files and binary data -images,...-.
OOXML has binary data INSIDE the XML file itself (and not just images but also non-standars Microsoft Word objects and things that are not described in the standard).
Microsoft has to relase ALL the details BEFORE ooxml will become a standard; if they released them only after they would be changing the standard!
Post a Comment