Microsoft is trying to get its Office OOXML format approved as an ISO (International Standard Organization) standard.
As always, they try to set standards that benefit them and freeze out everyone else. When someone else tries to write to their standard, they change things in an incompatible manner.
You can sign a petition against this here:
http://www.noooxml.org/petitionHere is a quote of the reasons from the site:
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.
Note:
Office OpenXML (shortened
OOXML) is neither open nor XML, nor is it a general "Office" file format, as it is specifically tailored to Microsoft Office 2007.
Office OpenXML is NO WAY RELATED to OpenOffice.org, a free software office suite supporting the ISO office document standard ODF. A better, less confusing name would be "Microsoft Office Document ML" or something to that effect.
LET'S STOP M$ BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE !
