the following are reasons why the new ooxml shouldnt be a standard: 1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens; 2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification; 3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules; 4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML; 5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft; 6. This format conflicts with existing ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash); 7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids any date before the year 1900: such bugs affect the OOXML specification as well as software applications like Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. 8. This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone. help stop microsoft from buildng yet another monopoly http://www.noooxml.org/petition
Not to mention the fact that the specification uses flawed math: http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/formula-for-failure.html Microsoft is doing some really disturbing things lately (Vista EULA conditions, Novell, "open source" software, .NET, now OOXML), their products should be avoided entirely on PC at the very least.
Noob... If you're going to post in the Linux forums, at least keep it on topic, and if you're going to expect any credibility, learn to spell, your sig only confirms you don't really know what you're talking about.
i'm tiring of your random 'posts' which are blatant post padding as you keep digging up old posts; that one comment i just quoted is enough to clue me in as to your age; i didn't even have to go and check if you were post padding as i'm subscribed to 22,000+ threads and when groups of old threads start appearing in my email i know there's someone new around here who's just out to up their rank; i will only ask you one last time to knock it off with the random crap - post only if you have something of value to post about.. plus if you're going to post, at least try to show you have some knowledge...
Not only did I sign the petition, I also tried some of the things listed here http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/ and found them to be true. Not only when trying to edit spreadsheets manually but also by using non M$ applications to change data in them.
Had mail from the petitioners.. Dear "my name", You signed the <NO>OOXML petition, a movement backed now by more than 70.000 supporters worldwide. Our effort to influence the OOXML (Office Open XML) standardization process has been an astonishing success so far. We aim for at least 100.000 signatures in February when the Geneva Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) will convene with the aim to resolve comments. Microsoft is trying by all means to get its "standard" adopted without substantial changes despite of its thousands of officially reported technical flaws and the pre-existence of ISO 26300:2006 (OpenDocument, ODF) as the most appropriate international standard for the representation of office documents. By next Tuesday Dec 11 2007 delegates from your National Standards Body BSI who will participate in the BRM have to be announced to ISO. At least Portugal and Ireland will be represented by Microsoft. In many other countries, we know that Microsoft gold partners are proposing themselves as heads of national delegations. Many of them will prevail if we do not take action. Will you let Microsoft represent your country at Geneva and decide the future of OOXML? You can make a difference and call now BSI at +44-208-9969000 and help us to find out: a. Who will represent BSI on DIS 29500 at the Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva? b. When will the decision on delegates be made and if BSI is aware of the Dec 11 deadline? c. Does your national delegates for the BRM are independent enough from Microsoft? d. Does the responsible Committee of BSI for DIS 29500 work on resolution proposals for all the 3500 comments tabled or - if at all - only for the national comments that they submitted? Please report your findings by replying to this email, we will update this page with the members of each national delegation: http://www.noooxml.org/brm More things that you can do to help our effort against this broken standard proposal: 1. Join our mailing list and get in touch with many other activists: http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml-club 2. Become a member of FFII, the worldwide association leading the <NO>OOXML campaign: http://action.ffii.org/member_application 3. Become a member of DIGISTAN, the organization for the promotion of true digital open standards worldwide; please indicate your interests to: members@digistan.org 4. Blog about OOXML which shapes the public debate; blogging has been instrumental to our success in Sweden for example; 5. support our campaign work with financial means: http://www.noooxml.org/donations Best regards, -- Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion> <NO>OOXML Campaign leader As a result of my digging around I came across In typical UK government organisations style they aren't really saying anything (me suspects financial interest by members of the panel) Also worthy of a read (funny who you find on the net, accepting comments from the public) http://adjb.net/comments.php?y=07&m=09&entry=entry070909-104641 Did anybody but me actually get involved with this campaign, or are we looking at yet another M$ railroading of standards?
Well I can report a small but important victory in the battle against closed standards and ballot rigging.. read more
The more I think about this, the more it looks like the ISO committee is going to be sounding their own death knell if OOXML is accepted. The entire process has revealed itself to be a mockery, open to manipulation and bribery in various forms. The whole situation sucks. While in my private life I couldn't possibly care less about the existence OOXML, at the end of the day I'm essentially making my living by being an Excel Guru so this is going to impact me in a big way I think, whichever way it goes. At least if it is approved I'll only have one new semi-proprietary format to code for I guess, but at what cost? RIP ISO 02/1947 - 03/2008? While I appreciate that thanks to Microsoft I'll be in a job for as long as I want it, I'm going to have my work cut out for me because of this shit sooner or later. We're presently on Office 2003, and I am NOT looking forward to all the macro rewrites I'm going to have to do in the next couple of years... I'm grateful for having a job, I'd just prefer it if it didn't have to be because Microsoft kept creating their own proprietary formats that are incompatible. Another item for thought: how many patents does OOXML rely upon in order to create an ISO certified implementation? Think about it... Microsoft can finally start earning money from their document format whether people use MS Office or not...
I was dong my usual browse around the related articles and came across this one.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/11/becta_vista/ This paragraph shows clearly how microshaft operates.. As schools are all publicly funded institutions the OFT can lawfully only find against M$ in this situation.. If they had any real balls they would BAN schools from using commercial (and damn expensive) OS solutions in the first place.. A UK school IT and computer related qualification is no more than how to use a couple of M$ apps like word etc.. A major part of my work is installing *nix on school hardware, mainly due to the fact that the continual fees to run M$ on their school machines drains what little money they have. Oh.. what about *nix being hard to use?? In a locked down school environment where the computers are supposed to be looked after by a "capable and competent" IT department tech there shouldn't be an issue, though I must admit to doing some one on one refresher training of staff who haven't seen *nix since college many many years ago.. From the students viewpoint there is practically no difference, except it stops them wasting around sneakily playing games :lol: I use dreamlinux for schools (unless they directly specify something else), mainly because it's look and feel is very mac-os and the applications look nice. This issue is so much more important to every computer user than any continual banging on and on about blu-ray hd-dvd.. aD should get with the program and start covering these stories on the main news threads, using it's member base as a campaigning tool against totalitarian monopolies.. hold on.. US based servers. don't rock the boat..
