OOXML critics: ISO approval demonstrates the need for reform
,----[ Quote ]
| Red Hat's legal team published a statement criticizing the ISO fast track
| process and expressing disappointment with the outcome. "Will the real
| interoperability standard please stand up?" Red Hat's legal team wrote. "Red
| Hat thinks governments and enterprises are not so easily confused. The Open
| Document Format, which has long been a multiparty-supported ISO standard,
| will continue to be a force in procurement decisions to be reckoned with.
| Government and Enterprises are tired of the lack of choice, lack of
| innovation, and premium rents from vendor lock-in."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080403-ooxml-critics-iso-approval-demonstrates-the-need-for-reform.html
Not many countries will adopt OOXML, regardless what status it eventually gets.
World's Hottest Tech Markets Voted Against Microsoft OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Brazil, India, and China, which together count for more than a third of the
| world's population, all voted against Office Open XML last week.
|
| [...]
|
| Gartner estimates that the market share for desktop Linux is about 2% in the
| Asia-Pacific region, 4.5% in Eastern Europe, and 4% in the Middle East and
| Africa. By contrast, Linux holds 1.2% of the desktop market in the U.S.
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207001577
Gartner uses _Microsoft figures_, so it's interesting to find almost 5% market
share for Linux on the desktop in Europe.
Recent:
Feeling the heat at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
`----
http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
Microsoft's SEC:
,----[ Quote ]
| A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system...
| To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales
| of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for
| our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.
`----
http://www. microsoft.com/msft/SEC/default.mspx
Related:
EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
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