Re: Regarding OOXML and Microsoft patents

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel ximian com>]

> Fully irrelevant, since in one case it's mere workload, and in the other
> case it's double the workload + restricted information + mathmatical and
> date errors.

We need to implement support for the date issue if we want to be able to
get folks to move to our office suite from MS Office anyways.   

As for the mathematical errors, those have been blown out of proportion:

http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/07/12/spreadsheet-formula-bugs.aspx

If you want to drown in a glass of water, go ahead, but they are minor
issues as outlined on the post above.

> Unlike OOXML, CSS2 is fully royalty free, please compare apple with
> apples, instead of apples with oranges.

The OSP is also royalty free, where did it say its not?   Do you have
formal legal advise that the OSP is not enough, or is this a conjecture
from the blogosphere?

> > > True standards can't rely on hidden information (with special agreements
> > > that need to be signed with Microsoft for certain parts of OOXML,
> > > as has been found in a document Microsoft was forced to disclose in Spain).
> > 
> > Which information is this?    There have been accusations made about
> > this hidden information, but they have turned out to be bogus.
> 
> Really?
> 
> What patents are involved? Can you list them for us since you seem to
> know? How does Microsoft's attitude towards patents compare with
> http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/ipr.php ?

We are not talking about Microsoft general attitudes, we are talking
about the specifics of this standard, and this standard is explicitly
listed in the Microsoft Open Specification Promise and has very precise
terms.   

> MS Word 2000 Table Style Rules, can you point them out?

I do not, but it is flagged on the standard as deprecated.   You could
bring this up at the ISO meeting if you are really concerned about it.

> > The closest I have heard of were the OLE tags for embedding OLE objects,
> > and those are present in ODF as well.
> 
> Funny to see you campaining for Microsoft's fake-standard, or are you
> "Miguel de Icaza" the slashdot troll? It's always hard to tell when you
> don't digitally sign messages...
> 
> So I keep wondering.

I would like to stick to the issues and stay away from ad-hominen
attacks.

Miguel.