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

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    > Microsoft's goal is, by one means or another, to defeat free software
    > which it now considers a serious threat.  Whatever they do, it will not
    > be a sincere standardization effort that offers no obstacle to free
    > software implementions.

    This is just your opinion, Richard. Not a fact.

Microsoft's goal is well documented in the "Halloween documents",
Microsoft internal documents leaked to ESR in 1998 or so, and repeated
threats made since then (including this year).  The conclusion follows
logically, and is confirmed by Microsoft's handling of Word format and
OOXML.

    Competing is a good thing, and in my opinion it's good that Microsoft
    competes with us. This keeps us sharp and focused.

Some people like competition and others don't, but competition is a
mistaken model for this contest.  Microsoft's goal is to subjugate
users while ours is to liberate them.

In an ordinary competition, one says "May the best man win", with
"best" understood in practical terms, because morally the competitors
are by definition equal.  In our fight, freedom is best in moral
terms, and the motto should be "May freedom win."

I wish that freedom did not have such a powerful enemy, and we could
simply relax and develop useful software with nothing to worry about.