Stuffing it Up - ODF and OOXML Document Format Battle
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This three-part summary on Microsoft's main strategy in its attempt to replace its own OOXML format in place of the current ODF format as an ISO standard. Its starts from the development of ODF at OASIS to the current gridlock at ISO due to the large influx of new members. Industry Motive: To preserve a monopoly and the fight to protect a four-billion-dollar per year cash cow against those who stand for open standards, against those who want to create even playing fields, fair competition, innovation and open access for everyone to benefit.
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Industry Motive: To preserve a monopoly and the fight to protect a four-billion-dollar per year cash cow against those who stand for open standards, against those who want to create even playing fields, fair competition, innovation and open access for everyone to benefit.
What started as a technical evaluation of data specifications has turned into one of the most ferocious political fights in IT history. Here, the true nature of the corporate giant has come to light again. Today there are choices for word processing and folks want to feel free and not tied into a single product. A dinosaur of a company, omnipresent, does not pick up on the changing times soon enough; it tries to live in the past — sometimes at all costs and without regard to those changing times, their potential customers, or to shame.
The format war boils down to who will own and/or control the way you save and open your document formats. There are approximately 60 billion documents in circulation and archived. So, perhaps, the real question is this: Do you want control and the freedom to choose the application you want to use to open these documents (without, of course, any complications), or do you want to be locked into a system and format totally controlled by one dominant company?
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