Comments on: Teacher, Those IBM Meanies Are Hurting Me! http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/teacher-those-ibm-meanies-are-hurting-me/ Random Thoughts And Rants From The Mind Of Walt Wed, 14 May 2008 10:25:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Stephane Rodriguez http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/teacher-those-ibm-meanies-are-hurting-me/#comment-112 Stephane Rodriguez Thu, 15 Feb 2007 09:11:49 +0000 http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/teacher-those-ibm-meanies-are-hurting-me/#comment-112 True. And don't forget the universal Ribbon UI licensing that explicitely excludes any Office suite competitor. When you know that, you have to wonder why people like Brian Jones is happy mentioning that Sun's OpenOffice guys have started adding support for SpreadsheetML. Not only the same limits (binary stuff, ...) still apply, but OpenOffice will never be allowed to compete on the same level since its UI can't evolve and match the one is MS Office should the OpenOffice guys want to propose it. And there is a ton more. Take the new chart engine. The changes with the old one are not documented, meaning that OpenOffice or any competitor will have to deal with not one now but two chart engines just because Microsoft decided it. Technically speaking, what the MS Office teams guys have done has absolutely no merit. I have been following them pretty closely (as an independent vendor) and that smells bad. What I find insulting is that they are talking so much about XML this, XML that, whereas in fact they are just putting angle brackets around their partially documented stuff. They carefully confuse XML as a data source, and XML as a serialization format. That's why they bribed Rick Jetliffe, which is known to have worked on XML related areas, where general purpose XML has merit, and that's why I expect them to bribe a lot more of such people. But it's obvious their web network is still pretty easy to debunk at this point. There is no more than ten vocal people out there, all either Microsoft employees, or having financial incentives to back Microsoft (such as the Indian consulting company Sonata software which is pretty much the only contributor to their community site called openxmldeveloper.org). Perhaps they are paid too. What worries me is that Microsoft has plenty of time and the luxury to talk to their guys that happen to be members of ISO national bodies, in order to influence ISO. For instance, in France, it appears there are no less than 3 Microsoft employees part of the ISO national body. Who knows the influence those guys can have on the final vote? The lobbying happens off the record. True. And don’t forget the universal Ribbon UI licensing that explicitely excludes any Office suite competitor. When you know that, you have to wonder why people like Brian Jones is happy mentioning that Sun’s OpenOffice guys have started adding support for SpreadsheetML. Not only the same limits (binary stuff, … ;) still apply, but OpenOffice will never be allowed to compete on the same level since its UI can’t evolve and match the one is MS Office should the OpenOffice guys want to propose it.

And there is a ton more. Take the new chart engine. The changes with the old one are not documented, meaning that OpenOffice or any competitor will have to deal with not one now but two chart engines just because Microsoft decided it.

Technically speaking, what the MS Office teams guys have done has absolutely no merit. I have been following them pretty closely (as an independent vendor) and that smells bad. What I find insulting is that they are talking so much about XML this, XML that, whereas in fact they are just putting angle brackets around their partially documented stuff. They carefully confuse XML as a data source, and XML as a serialization format. That’s why they bribed Rick Jetliffe, which is known to have worked on XML related areas, where general purpose XML has merit, and that’s why I expect them to bribe a lot more of such people.

But it’s obvious their web network is still pretty easy to debunk at this point. There is no more than ten vocal people out there, all either Microsoft employees, or having financial incentives to back Microsoft (such as the Indian consulting company Sonata software which is pretty much the only contributor to their community site called openxmldeveloper.org). Perhaps they are paid too.

What worries me is that Microsoft has plenty of time and the luxury to talk to their guys that happen to be members of ISO national bodies, in order to influence ISO. For instance, in France, it appears there are no less than 3 Microsoft employees part of the ISO national body. Who knows the influence those guys can have on the final vote? The lobbying happens off the record.

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