Re: OOXML [was Re: GNOME Foundation Board Meeting Minutes :: 7/6/07]

["Andy Tai" <atai gnu org>]

OOXML will be a de facto standard entirely due to Microsoft's dominant position in the computing industry... the fight is about preventing it to be a formal standard.

We cannot prevent the former.  We can prevent the later.  A more activist opposition to OOXML is called for.

Option 3 is useful only if we can veto (or organize a veto, or a stall) of the OOXML progress toward being a standard.  The current participation is not of that manner.

People can try to "make it suck less" but GNOME should not be involved in that, since that makes GNOME "a pawn to weaken ODF."

On 11/1/07, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:

On 10/31/07, Andy Tai <atai atai org> wrote:
> Not quiet... you don't join ECMA TC45 to prevent OOXML from becoming a
> standard.

OOXML is going to be the defacto standard whether we like it or not.
To pretend otherwise is to deny that the sun will rise in the East
tomorrow.

So our options can be:

1) pretend it doesn't exist and let Microsoft make it suck completely
for anyone who has to reimplement it- which will include us at some
point.

2) acknowledge it and at least attempt to make it suck less for
reimplementers, and allow our presence at ECMA to be used as a pawn to
weaken ODF.

3) acknowledge it and at least attempt to make it suck less for
reimplementers, but use our presence there to highlight Microsoft's
abusive, convicted monopolistic tendencies.

I'm very disappointed that we're currently headed towards #2, which,
IMHO, is probably worse than #1. But it shouldn't be that hard to push
towards #3- which really is the least bad of all the options.

Luis