“A panel of software experts yesterday unexpectedly rebuffed Microsoft’s bid to have its open document format, Office Open XML, recognized as an international standard. The decision complicates the company’s effort to extend its dominance to the emerging field of open documents,” Kevin J. O’Brien reports for The New York Times.
“After five months of electronic balloting, Microsoft failed to meet the two voting criteria to win a designation as an approved standard from the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization, or the I.S.O., and the International Electrotechnical Commission, or I.E.C.,” O’Brien reports.
“The fight over the standard, while technically arcane, is commercially important because more governments are demanding interchangeable open document formats for their vast amounts of records, instead of proprietary formats tied to one company’s software. The only standardized format now available to government buyers is OpenDocument Format, developed by a consortium led by I.B.M., which the I.S.O. approved in May 2006,” O’Brien reports.
“Of the 87 countries that participated, 26 percent opposed Microsoft’s bid. Under the rules for approval, no more than 25 percent of the countries could oppose the bid. Microsoft also failed to win the vote of 66 percent of 41 countries on another panel of I.S.O. and I.E.C. members,” O’Brien reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mark” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s new iWork ’08 supports Microsoft’s “Office Open XML” format.
The problem is that Microsoft’s Open Office XML format is still largely dependent upon proprietary technology such as Windows printer specs and Windows TrueType Fonts which have different kerning rules (enough that where the sentence wraps can change).
MDN Magic Word: “our” as in “our software is better than Microsoft’s”.
Meanwhile back in the underground Redmond lair…
“BALMER!! Get your monkey boy *ss in here right now!!”
“Yes, my master-bates…errr gates”
“What did you do with the millions I gave you to pay off the opposition to our XML format?”
“Well sir, there was this cute chimp traveling with the local circus and…”
“Shut up Balmer…”
Does iWork support ODF? I don’t think it does.
I Personally use Google docs for most of my mundane office chores. I love the portability.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s new iWork ’08 supports Microsoft’s “Office Open XML” format.”
Apparently no one else supports it!
Does iWork use its own proprietary format? Surely that will hurt its adoption. Why on earth was ODF missed off in iWork?
so. where is the guy who spent an entire thread telling us all how pages and OO would be gone a month after this was certified?
never count your chicken before they hatch, and NEVER count on MS to do ANYTHING right……
On OpenOffice, it mentions: “…developed by a consortium led by I.B.M.”
That being the case, why does it tell me “Copyright 2000-2006 Sun Microsystems Inc.” when I select “About OpenOffice.org” inside OpenOffice? Hmm.
I’m pleased to hear that, anyway.
Glad I only use iWork!
:DD
Now this was all about greed. NBC is nowhere close to being as good at greed (and arm twisting) as M$.
Blatantly Off Topic Post:
Today, I am happy to announce, is the 7th birthday of my Cube, as I sit here and type this post on it.
Yes, 7 years ago I became a Mac user. I awoke from my Matrix-like sleep (I let Neo keep sleeping – he seemed tired), and I entered the Macintosh world. I had never owned a computer before then because they never seemed to work right. It was always a constant frustration trying to get anything done. It was late August 2000 that my friend Art explained the difference betwen a Mac and PC. I used his Mac (a first generation G3) for only 20 minutes and I was sold by the ease of use.
And I haven’t looked back.
Cubert
MW = “shown” I was shown the light 7 years ago.
Hallelujah! Now let’s hope Apple will tweak iWork to support ODF so that the true standard can be promoted.
RTMS,
That was too funny!!! My brain automatically read that opening line in a Batman announcer voice.
In my most annoying Simpson’s kid voice: “Ha ha!”
Just my $0.02
Open Office was originally developed by a German company, subsequently purchased by Sun – which then released it for public development. That’s probably why it still carries a Sun copyright. IBM’s influence was on the Open Doc standard used by Open Office and others. MDN says iWork “supports” Open Office XML, but it’s my understanding it currently *reads*, but doesn’t write OOXML. Am I wrong?
Finally, the recent vote was over “fast track” standardization, so Microsoft can still go through the normal standardization path, which will take much longer. That’s a defeat for MS, but they’re still claiming “broad support” after the vote. Typical spin.
Re: Return the Matte screens Apple
The chimp’s name is “Zune”, and it is not so cute except to Balmer.
yawn…. yet another MS failure… what’s new?
pwnt…
Weather outlook for Redmond, Washington:
Watch out for low flying chairs today.
And the Beating Goes On.
Oh man – LIKE we all wanted this as a standturd – right?
Gooooooood. Justice is being served.
thx
Ray,
His name is Nelson.
HAHA!
Well let’s hope now that the panel can come up with a workable open standard soon.
Why? Because Microsoft has blown it by changing the format that was only exclusive to them. They changed things and made it clearly more difficult for everyone else and didn’t come up with a real solution for anyone else either. In typical Microsoft fashion they said screw the consumer, you figure it out. Now finally some are saying screw you Microsoft!!
The old days are over where everyone will just grin and bear it. Finally people are saying we really don’t need you if you don’t want to give us a better solution.
Yeah baby! M$ just dropped the price of their squirt brown Zune in fear of todays after lunch released new iPod.
Is that the only way you can compete, M$? Boy, people are really gonna bypass a new touch screen iPod with CoverFlow and go buy a squirt brown Zune, now!!! ha
Maybe M$ knows something we don’t, maybe that Apple may still offer the current existing iPod at a lower price in addition to the new touch screen one at the regular price.
Peaze said:
“Does iWork use its own proprietary format? Surely that will hurt its adoption. Why on earth was ODF missed off in iWork?”
Because Apple still tries to kiss Microsoft’s ass as much as possible. They should have said screw Microsoft and put ODF in iWork ’08.
“ISO rejects Microsoft’s ‘Office Open XML’ format”
YEAH!!!!!!
Sorry Apple et al lost.
You fanboys do realize that Apple voted in FAVOR of Microsoft’s OOXML becoming an International Standard in this vote?
Bwahahahaha
Headline: “CHAIRS FLY IN REDMOND.” Monkeyboy goes bananas.
Remember this story. And remember the story about Microsoft trying old tactics to freeze the market by hinting at a Zune phone. Ten years ago, these tactics might have worked. Today, they don’t.
We may have hit an inflection point, a day when Microsoft reaches for the six-shooter in their holster, only to find no bullets in the barrel. Where nations once cowered and moved in lock-step to anything the Beastmaster ordered or said, it’s not the case any more. Ten years ago, had there been an iPhone back then, the mere hint by Microsoft that they would be rolling out an competing phone would have caused Apple stock to plummet. Instead, it didn’t wiggle. Ten years ago, if the gnomes of Redmond ordered a new standard such as OOXML, ISO representatives would have simply grabbed their ankles. Not anymore.
Today, people are beginning to question Microsoft. The rubber stamps have been put away. People are starting to push back. Where it was once assumed that Vista would be all dominant when it was first talked about as Longhorn, people came to understand what a clusterfuck it really is. People are taking their blinders off and giving the Mac OS a serious look. The shackles are coming off. And people are making their own decisions.
Often, we don’t see the big turning points until long after they have passed. But remember today. If not for what Steve Jobs is about to announce (and by all means, read FakeSteve’s blog today – it’s a gem), perhaps by itself, we should remember today as a day when people all over the world said one word to Microsoft: Enough.
To which I close with the poignant words of James Earl Jones, playing author Terrance Mann in the movie Field of Dreams – there’s an allegory to what is happening today with Apple and the vision of Steve Jobs:
“People will come, Ray.
They’ll come to lowa
for reasons they can’t even fathom.
They’ll turn up your driveway,
not knowing for sure why they’re doing it.
They’ll arrive at your door
as innocent as children…
…longing for the past.
“Of course, we won’t mind
if you look around,” you’ll say.
“It’s only $ per person.”
They’ll pass over the money
without even thinking about it.
For it is money they have
and peace they like.
Then they’ll walk off to the bleachers…
…and sit in their shirtsleeves
on a perfect afternoon.
They’ll find they have reserved seats
somewhere along one of the baselines…
…where they sat when they were children
and cheered their heroes…
…and they’ll watch the game…
…and it will be as if they dipped
themselves in magic waters.
The memories will be so thick…
…they’ll have to brush them away
from their faces.
The one constant through all the years,
Ray, has been baseball.
America has rolled by
like an army of steamrollers.
It’s been erased like a blackboard,
rebuilt, and erased again.
But baseball has marked the time.
This field, this game.
It’s a part of our past, Ray.
It reminds us of all that once was good…
…and it could be again.
People will come, Ray.
People will most definitely come.”
Corrupt countries more in favor of M$ OOXML format
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
— nonarKitten,
I thought TrueType was developed by Apple in the 1980’s?
so there is some justice in the world, not even M$ corrupting ways of trying to rig the vote with their business partners could get them the win
“I thought TrueType was developed by Apple in the 1980’s?”
Actually, it was a joint Apple / Microsoft venture to loosen Adobe’s hold on type.
If one more country had supported OOXML it would have passed one hurdle. Sweden passed the resolution which was then overturned when Microsoft was basically found cheating. Oops.