MS Awarded "Best Campaigner Against OOXML"

HansF writes "Microsoft itself is the surprise winner of the FFII's Kayak Prize 2007, offered by the FFII in its call for rejection of Microsoft's OOXML standards proposal. The software monopolist is honored as 'Best Campaigner against OOXML Standardization.' FFII president Pieter Hintjens explains, 'We could never have done this by ourselves. By pushing so hard to get OOXML endorsed, even to the point of loading the standards boards in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, and beyond, Microsoft showed to the world how poor their format is. Good standards just don't need that kind of pressure. All together, countries made over ten thousands technical comments, a new world record for an ISO vote. Microsoft made a heroic — and costly — effort to discredit their own proposal, and we're sincerely grateful to them.'" If Microsoft doesn't send a representative to claim their 2500-Euro prize at the FFII General Assembly in November, FFII will give the money to Peruvian earthquake relief.

I wouldn't be too smug

[earthforce_1]

They nearly won, and it isn't over yet - there is another vote coming up in Februrary.

Comments

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how many of those comments are duplicates. Oh well, as long as they're technical comments upon which constructive changes can be made then they are a good thing. It's a learning process.

Microsft? A hero?

[WK2]

Microsoft made a heroic -- and costly -- effort to discredit their own proposal, and we're sincerely grateful to them.

If I see an armed mugger robbing two women, and then run away screaming, and the robber looks at me for a second, giving one of the women enough time to open a can of woop-ass, that doesn't make me a hero.

The medium is the message

[DeepBlueDiver]

I'd figured that since the vast majority of companies I've seen haven't (yet) started to migrate to Office 2007 then maybe sending .docx fils to everyone might not be such a smart move.

Each time MS releases a new Office version, many corporate assholes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H managers set a policy of using the new format on any communication. They don't care if you can't read the content, in fact, they hope you cant.

Their message is "I am cool. I use the newest stuff. My dick is bigger than yours".

Re:A ploy?

[allthingscode]

History only partially backs you up on this one. Remember Microsoft's numerous attempts to define a networking standard so that they could crush the TCP/IP network protocol? NetBUI anyone?

But yes, it can be hard to overcome the market leader. But, then again, if Microsoft were really sure that they controlled the market, why go through the trouble of standardizing? Because large parts of the world were looking elsewhere, especially governments.

Re:Vista makes me smile.

[suv4x4]

Just the same, I don't feel smug about how easily they damaged ISO. When I want to feel smug, I contemplate Vista's failure and what that means for the whole next generation of M$ crap and lock in.

I'm not sure why it looks "easily" to corrupt ISO to you. It did take a lot of effort behind the scenes, give them credit where it's due.

Re:Comments

[counterfriction]

I think the sheer volume alone is illustrative of the weight of the outcry against it.

Unfortunately...

[vegiVamp]

The problem is that this doesn't change much.

They're still going to deploy it as the default document format for the new Offices. Lots of small and large companies are still going to upgrade their software at some point. OOXML is still very likely to become the new de facto standard due to common usage.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Xtifr]

OOXML is still very likely to become the new de facto standard due to common usage.

Whatever they came up with was likely to be a de facto standard of sorts. But blocking this from becoming a de jure standard is still a somewhat surprising victory, and we should celebrate winning a battle, even if the war is far from over.

For that matter, for all its flaws, MSOOXML is an improvement over MS's older formats. While it may not be transparent like ODF, it is, at the least, fairly translucent compared to their earlier, opaque formats. The fact that they've gone as far as they have towards transparency is another sizable and often-overlooked victory.

Re:Some have already sipped the Kool-Aid...

[Bert64]

// if, and when, a better tool is available, I'll find out the pros and cons of switching and make my decision based on the facts at hand and the recommendations of those I trust.

Exactly, a file format should not be able to dictate what you switch to... Your devision of what to use might boil down to "we need to open files in format x, only y supports x so we must use y", regardless of so many other important factors like cost, performance, usability, stability, long term support etc.

Without proprietary formats, you would be free to choose what truly is the best tool for your needs based on the actual pros and cons.

Re:Vista WGA

[Ephemeriis]

Just try to use a Dell recovery DVD on a homebuilt box. The EULA forbids the OS transfer and the recovery DVD program won't recover to another machine.

I'm not sure what recovery DVD you're referring to... Perhaps something for Vista, or Media Center Edition? All of the Dells I've seen in the last year or two come with a recovery CD that works just fine on any machine. It's basically a regular WinXP install CD with a Dell label on it.

We've got a bunch of these Dell recovery CDs floating around the office (Win2k, WinXP Home, WinXP Pro) that we use when we don't have recovery media for a machine (like the wonderful HPs with the recovery partition - hose the HDD and lose your recovery media too!).

Obviously the licensing is tied to the machine. You can't transfer an OEM license from one computer to another. What you need to do is enter the OEM license from the sticker on the PC you're reloading. Generally speaking, it will activate online just fine. If it doesn't, just call Microsoft and tell them what happened. They don't generally ask a whole lot of questions, especially now that Vista is the hot item to have.

and it was risk free.

[Erris]

... in some parts of the world it was ridiculously easy to pass OOXML.

In the US, the Wintel press has cranked up nonsense about how ooxml's demise was "political", which spins everything upside down. A company that owns it's own broadcast network, a sizeable number of newspapers, and spends a billion dollars a month in advertising does have it easy when it comes to blanketing the world with it's opinions.

The attack was also easy because there is little downside to it from their persective. They hate all reasonable standards so the controversy's damage to ISO is a win even if they lose. They also think that the only people who will notice are people who hate them anyway. That's a gamble they have been losing more often and the crowd of people turned off is growing because of it.