There They Go Again: It's Time to Just Say No to Microsoft and Ecma

"Should ISO/IEC JTC1 approve OOXML, and if so, why not? This morning's news provides the best evidence for why the answer should be 'no.'

"Whether Microsoft's OOXML (now Ecma 376) should receive the thumbs up is a question most recently posed to me by a reporter last week. It's also one that I've been struggling with for the past 18 months in an effort to be open minded on the subject. Despite the fact that we would all be better off (in my view) with a single document format that works well enough for all vendors and all end users, the submission by Microsoft of OOXML to Ecma certainly benefits Microsoft's many customers and partners.. So why shouldn't ISO/IEC approve it as a standard as well, despite the prior approval of ODF as a global standard...?"

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Microsoft Announces UOF-OOXML Translator Project with China(May 21, 2007)
• eWeek: Microsoft's Open XML Format Advances in ISO(Apr 03, 2007)
• ConsortiumInfo: ComputerWorld's ODF/OOXML Trifecta...(Mar 13, 2007)
• internetnews.com: Novell: Word, Meet Open Source (Mar 06, 2007)