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[News] [Rival] OOXML a Desparate "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" Tool

  • Subject: [News] [Rival] OOXML a Desparate "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" Tool
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:47:59 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Freelance
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Implementation-defined (Not really)

,----[ Quote ]
| Here begins the lesson on Embrace, Extend and Extinguish (EEE). Classically, 
| this technique is used to perpetuate vendor lock-in by introducing small 
| incompatibilities into a standard interface, in order to prevent effective 
| interoperability, or (shudder) even substitutability of competing products 
| based on that interface. This EEE strategy has worked well so far for 
| Microsoft, with the web browser, with Java, with Kerberos, etc. It is 
| interesting to note that this technique can work equally well with 
| Microsoft's own standards, like OOXML.       
| 
| [...]
| 
| So, by failing to include this in their conformance clause, OOXML's use of 
| the term "implementation-defined" is toothless. It just means "We don't want 
| to tell you this information" or "We don't want to interoperate". Conformant 
| applications are not required to actually document how they extend the  
| standard. You can look at Microsoft Office 2007 as a prime example. Where is 
| this documentation that explains how Office 2007 implements  
| these "implementation-defined" features? How is interoperability promoted 
| without this?     
`----

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/implementation-defined-not-really.html


Related:

Expert Testimony of Ronald Alepin in Comes v. Microsoft - Embrace, Extend,
Extinguish

,----[ Quote ]
| You'll hear some emails read aloud, one of Bill Gates's, an email from
| 1996 about Java, where he says he was losing sleep over how great
| Java was, and you'll see a strategy he suggested -- "fully
| supporting Java and extending it in a Windows/Microsoft way".
|
| [...]
| 
| Well, when applets are cross-platform, it expands the number of 
| applications that are available to you so you can go to a website.
| And if you have a Linux computer or a Macintosh computer or a Windows 3.1 
| computer, you can get an application and it will run.
| 
| You don't have to either select a specific application or hope that the 
| independent software vendor or the website created the application for your 
| platform. So it would increase the number of applications available to you. 
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070108020408557


Comes v. Microsoft Resumes Today

,----[ Quote ]
| "Ronald Alepin, an independent consultant and former CTO for Fujitsu,
| disputed the idea that Microsoft had been an innovator in the field.
| He said that interoperability protocols were developed by companies
| other than Microsoft, and that Microsoft has simply extended the
| protocols and then refused to disclose the extensions. In so doing, 
| he told the court, Microsoft "has hijacked standard
| interoperability protocols agreed by the entire industry."
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070104031852847

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