There are some things which some people would hold with outright and honest contempt, and that some others would embrace with casual and simple liberalism. Yet those who are careless in embracing are often also smooth and crisp in releasing, whilst they who resist, fight and reject often struggle endlessly on, inexorably and hopelessly trapped by their own subject of spite.
We sometimes find ourselves perplexed over this, even contemptuous, calling it hypocrisy. And this clearly illuminates the feebleness of our appreciation for the true order of things in this cosmos. We haven't anything even close to an acute sense of causality, only fold upon fold of irretrievably knotted preconceptions, predispositions and prejudices, that perhaps can never be undone.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
OOXML - now an ISO standard.
If you can spare the time, please read till the end. I spent alot of very very scarce time writing this up :)
Okay, so I started out this morning on the innocent task of finding myself a converter for Microsoft's new OOXML format, being sick of having people just absently sending me .docx formatted documents and having to ask them to resend the regular .doc format. 5 minutes into the Google search and I found myself in a whirlpool of news, comments and outcries because just yesterday, the ISO (international organisation for standardization) has approved OOXML as an international standard. (story)
I find myself a little angry at this, and that's why I am actually taking the time to type this out. Microsoft, its history, present practice, core business model and de-facto company philosophy is as far removed from the concept of an open standard as the bin in my room is from Pluto. An open standard means each and every detail of its components are released in full, so that it can be implemented/supported by anyone, ie an open standard is platform and vendor independent. Everything Microsoft has produced that I am remotely familiar with does not come remotely close to this. I cannot, for example, name a single piece of Microsoft software that isn't exclusively tied to Windows by design.
The case is hardly different for OOXML. There is a petition here with a list of arguments against OOXML being an open standard.
I think its important for everyone to get an appreciation of what exactly is going on here. We have Microsoft pushing hard for the international adoption of a broken 'open' document format which, among other things,
These are not oversights. These and many other issues with OOXML has been harshly criticized and loudly denounced by many parties including national standards committees, large software companies, and figures in the IT industry. The fact is these are engineered into the OOXML specifications by design.
So how in blazes did Microsoft manage to get OOXML approved by ISO? Microsoft is not only smart, they also have a lot of power, and are ruthless when it comes to exercising their muscles. There are many and consistent accounts of irregularities in the ISO evaluation process, involving lobbying and political moves by Microsoft on the standards committees in many countries. From the NoOOXML website : "Microsoft has compromised the International Standards Organisation (ISO) during the rush to get a stamp for their Office OpenXML (OOXML), using unfair practices such as committee stuffing in several countries and political interventions of ministers in the standardization process."
A (huge!) compiled list of details on alleged irregularities in the evaluation process can be found here.
Why does this matter to us? Because we are software users, and because Microsoft, with this latest bid and countless others before it, is aiming for absolute monopoly. Absolute monopoly in the software industry (Microsoft's overpoweringly obvious goal) will be to our great detriment because choice and competition will be eliminated. When you are forced to go back to one single vendor for all of your software needs, bugfixes, and feature request, that vendor has the freedom to charge for simple stuff like patches, upgrades and bugfixes - even if it was their fault that the upgrades and fixes are needed in the first place! They are also free to sell their products at ridiculous prices. In fact, given Microsoft's present dominance over the market and the extensive vendor-locking net they employ, this is to a degree already happening. (think how much does the ms office suite cost?)
What's more, Microsoft has a history of hitting for the pinnacle of market dominance not by trying to produce the best software, but by using the underhanded tactic of locking users inside of their (often inferior) software by preinstalling everything with Windows, preinstalling Windows with many more things, and then locking everything up with a web of patents and intellectual properties.This is not natural and destroys the merits of a free market by allowing inferior goods to survive through the death of other, superior goods from lack of support and awareness.
The open source community has shown us that software is nothing big, that you can churn out software of incredible quality and give it out for free. This is a powerful and crucial factor in the software world that places alot of pressure on commercial vendors like Microsoft, because people know what can be produced for free, vendors will not only be forced to keep up and make sure they produce quality for the stuff they are selling, but also to think thrice before ever attempting to overcharge. Stuff like OOXML carry the potential of severely handicapping related open source projects! Because of the incomplete specifications and the lack of protection against lawsuits, related open source software projects will never know when they would be stepping on one of Microsoft's intellectual property when trying to support OOXML, and so if Microsoft decides, it could legally sue all of its competitors for patent infringement, forcing free software developers to either charge their users so that they could pay Microsoft (destroying the notion of free, in more ways than one), or to close the project altogether.
What I hope to accomplish with these four hours or so that I ripped out of my very very tight schedule is to do my part in the effort to raise awareness about what is going on in the software market. I'm not saying everyone should go out of their way to boycott office2007 or any other Microsoft product for that matter. My hope is for you to understand and keep these issues in mind when using Microsoft products, and be aware of the alternatives Microsoft will try to blind you to, even if you don't want to use them. Also, I hope that you are now a little angry at Microsoft, and a little more sympathetic with the people who are involved in/using open source software. These are software communities that truly care about the software and the user, instead of the the money you can get out of both. At least, perhaps you can contemplate installing an ODF plugin for your poor long suffering friends who use OpenOffice.org :)
PS : In the midst of all these I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that Malaysia is actually quite a pro-open source country! In fact, just last week, the Malaysian government has officially decided to migrate to ODF and OpenOffice.org! Some other articles about Malaysia and open source are here, here and here. In fact, both of two Malaysian standards committees tasked with evaluating the OOXML proposal decided to submit "Disapprove with comments", but were both suspiciously overruled by the central government with the result that Malaysia abstained from the voting -.-
PS 2 : In the very remote chance that any of you are on Linux and use OpenOffice.org, I managed to get it to read .docx files by following instructions here.
Okay, so I started out this morning on the innocent task of finding myself a converter for Microsoft's new OOXML format, being sick of having people just absently sending me .docx formatted documents and having to ask them to resend the regular .doc format. 5 minutes into the Google search and I found myself in a whirlpool of news, comments and outcries because just yesterday, the ISO (international organisation for standardization) has approved OOXML as an international standard. (story)
I find myself a little angry at this, and that's why I am actually taking the time to type this out. Microsoft, its history, present practice, core business model and de-facto company philosophy is as far removed from the concept of an open standard as the bin in my room is from Pluto. An open standard means each and every detail of its components are released in full, so that it can be implemented/supported by anyone, ie an open standard is platform and vendor independent. Everything Microsoft has produced that I am remotely familiar with does not come remotely close to this. I cannot, for example, name a single piece of Microsoft software that isn't exclusively tied to Windows by design.
The case is hardly different for OOXML. There is a petition here with a list of arguments against OOXML being an open standard.
I think its important for everyone to get an appreciation of what exactly is going on here. We have Microsoft pushing hard for the international adoption of a broken 'open' document format which, among other things,
- Is inextricably linked to their (insanely expensive) office productivity suite, and hence cannot be easily implemented or supported in full by any other parties.
- Does not come with any legally binding assurance that Microsoft cannot sue parties attempting to implement/support OOXML fully or partially (ie, potential competitors) for patent violations.
These are not oversights. These and many other issues with OOXML has been harshly criticized and loudly denounced by many parties including national standards committees, large software companies, and figures in the IT industry. The fact is these are engineered into the OOXML specifications by design.
So how in blazes did Microsoft manage to get OOXML approved by ISO? Microsoft is not only smart, they also have a lot of power, and are ruthless when it comes to exercising their muscles. There are many and consistent accounts of irregularities in the ISO evaluation process, involving lobbying and political moves by Microsoft on the standards committees in many countries. From the NoOOXML website : "Microsoft has compromised the International Standards Organisation (ISO) during the rush to get a stamp for their Office OpenXML (OOXML), using unfair practices such as committee stuffing in several countries and political interventions of ministers in the standardization process."
A (huge!) compiled list of details on alleged irregularities in the evaluation process can be found here.
Why does this matter to us? Because we are software users, and because Microsoft, with this latest bid and countless others before it, is aiming for absolute monopoly. Absolute monopoly in the software industry (Microsoft's overpoweringly obvious goal) will be to our great detriment because choice and competition will be eliminated. When you are forced to go back to one single vendor for all of your software needs, bugfixes, and feature request, that vendor has the freedom to charge for simple stuff like patches, upgrades and bugfixes - even if it was their fault that the upgrades and fixes are needed in the first place! They are also free to sell their products at ridiculous prices. In fact, given Microsoft's present dominance over the market and the extensive vendor-locking net they employ, this is to a degree already happening. (think how much does the ms office suite cost?)
What's more, Microsoft has a history of hitting for the pinnacle of market dominance not by trying to produce the best software, but by using the underhanded tactic of locking users inside of their (often inferior) software by preinstalling everything with Windows, preinstalling Windows with many more things, and then locking everything up with a web of patents and intellectual properties.This is not natural and destroys the merits of a free market by allowing inferior goods to survive through the death of other, superior goods from lack of support and awareness.
The open source community has shown us that software is nothing big, that you can churn out software of incredible quality and give it out for free. This is a powerful and crucial factor in the software world that places alot of pressure on commercial vendors like Microsoft, because people know what can be produced for free, vendors will not only be forced to keep up and make sure they produce quality for the stuff they are selling, but also to think thrice before ever attempting to overcharge. Stuff like OOXML carry the potential of severely handicapping related open source projects! Because of the incomplete specifications and the lack of protection against lawsuits, related open source software projects will never know when they would be stepping on one of Microsoft's intellectual property when trying to support OOXML, and so if Microsoft decides, it could legally sue all of its competitors for patent infringement, forcing free software developers to either charge their users so that they could pay Microsoft (destroying the notion of free, in more ways than one), or to close the project altogether.
What I hope to accomplish with these four hours or so that I ripped out of my very very tight schedule is to do my part in the effort to raise awareness about what is going on in the software market. I'm not saying everyone should go out of their way to boycott office2007 or any other Microsoft product for that matter. My hope is for you to understand and keep these issues in mind when using Microsoft products, and be aware of the alternatives Microsoft will try to blind you to, even if you don't want to use them. Also, I hope that you are now a little angry at Microsoft, and a little more sympathetic with the people who are involved in/using open source software. These are software communities that truly care about the software and the user, instead of the the money you can get out of both. At least, perhaps you can contemplate installing an ODF plugin for your poor long suffering friends who use OpenOffice.org :)
PS : In the midst of all these I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that Malaysia is actually quite a pro-open source country! In fact, just last week, the Malaysian government has officially decided to migrate to ODF and OpenOffice.org! Some other articles about Malaysia and open source are here, here and here. In fact, both of two Malaysian standards committees tasked with evaluating the OOXML proposal decided to submit "Disapprove with comments", but were both suspiciously overruled by the central government with the result that Malaysia abstained from the voting -.-
PS 2 : In the very remote chance that any of you are on Linux and use OpenOffice.org, I managed to get it to read .docx files by following instructions here.
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