OOXML, ODF and UOF: What's Up in China?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has seemed to be flying high in the Peoples Republic of China
| lately. Bill Gates spent several days in Beijing earlier this year in
| meetings with high-level officials, after hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao
| the spring before at Gate's own home. And legitimate copies of Microsoft
| products appear to be at last gaining ground in comparison to pirated copies,
| albeit at the price of discounting them to almost unimaginable levels
| (students can now reportedly obtain a Windows/Office bundle for the
| incredible price of $3). Many credited Microsoft's pragmatic decision to
| accept Chinese realities and not insist on having everything its own way.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070817070419313
That's just the type of stuff Gates will do more of when he 'retires'. China
has recently slammed OOXML (examples below), so Microsoft goes for the
non-technical leaders with their money and influence (more examples below).
Here's a new interview with Sutor.
The LXer Interview: Bob Sutor of IBM
,----[ Quote ]
| Why doesn't IBM use their advertising muscle to counteract the Microsoft FUD?
|
| There has been a tremendous amount of broad community rebuttal of nonsensical
| information that is self-serving and anti-open source and anti-open
| standards. We contribute where necessary in various ways as we speak with
| customers, analysts, and anyone else appropriate.
|
| What do you see for the future of IBM's involvement with Linux?
|
| More and better!
`----
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/89812/index.html
Related:
Microsoft ‘monopoly’ comes under fire
,----[ Quote ]
| We are calling on the government to veto the OOXML format at the
| International Organization for Standardization (ISO).” The OOXML format is a
| file specification released by Microsoft in December last year for its
| Microsoft Office 2007 suite. It is currently in a fast track standardization
| process with the ISO and will be subject to voting next month. Unlike the
| current ISO digital document standard ODF (Open Document Format) and China’s
| national standard UDF (Unified Office Document Format), Microsoft’s OOXML
| format can only be run on a Windows platform.
|
| It is also criticized for containing many proprietary technologies that can
| only be fully supported by Microsoft’s Office products.
`----
http://www.bbj.hu/main/news_29721_microsoft+%25E2%2580%2598monopoly%25E2%2580%2599+comes+under+fire.html
An open document standard for China
,----[ Quote ]
| Another standard that Microsoft does not support, is the
| RFC 3987 specification, which defines UTF-8 capable Internet addresses.
| Consequently, OOXML does not support the use of Chinese
| characters within a Web address.
|
| Microsoft also did a bad job in creating a document format
| for the whole world, which is an important requirement for an ISO standard.
| Considerations for users in Israel and many Muslim countries were excluded in
| the specification of OOXML. For any locale, the function 'Networkdays()' will
| always return Saturday and Sunday as the weekend. However, this is wrong for
| Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Israel, Jordan, Libya,
| Pakistan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. ODF handles this correctly.
|
| There are many more examples why OOXML isn't a suitable candidate for an ISO
| standard yet. From my point of view, Microsoft should stop, as soon as
| possible, bringing more redundancy into office document formats.
|
| It would be much better if Microsoft takes the good ideas and technologies
| from OOXML, and tries to join an effort to unify ODF, UOF and OOXML. For
| those interested, the blog of IBM's Robert Weir, is a good source to get
| informed about the issues of OOXML.
|
| I hope China will not support OOXML in its ISO voting, but force Microsoft to
| consider talks for one harmonized office document standard for the whole
| world.
`----
http://www.zdnetasia.com/blog/opensource/0,39060102,63000113,00.htm
McCain comes out against Net Neutrality; Says would hire Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| In another move that was sure to infuriate many geeks, the 70 year
| old presidential hopeful also said that he would ask Microsoft CEO
| Steve Ballmer to serve on his cabinet to deal with technology issues
| if elected. He did not however say what position Ballmer might be
| hired in, but did joke that he might consider him for a diplomatic
| position, such as ambassador to China.
`----
http://www.thedailybackground.com/2007/05/30/mccain-comes-out-against-net-neutrality-says-would-hire-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer/
Treachery In The Trenches
,----[ Quote ]
| I believe that most people do not grasp the immense entity of Microsoft.
| This is an organization and a man who commands the attention and bidding
| of world leaders. On a recent trip to America, the President of China
| spent his first evening in the United States, not with our President,
| but Bill Gates. He was the guest of the Gates mansion that first
| evening and the guest of honor for a dinner attended by over one
| hundred people. Why? To ask him to crack down on Software piracy
| and to insure that his computer manufacturers put Microsoft Windows
| on thier newly made machines instead of shipping them with no OS. He
| didn't see the President of the United States for over 36 hours...he
| spent that time with Bill Gates at his home and at the Redmond
| Campus.
`----
http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/88-Treachery-In-The-Trenches.html
|
|
