Sun Microsystems Inc., largely considered an avowed opponent of Open XML because of its own development and support for the competing, ODF-based
StarOffice suite, found itself in the unexpected position of stating its support for ratifying Open XML -- albeit after some changes in the proposal are made.
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Quote:
Sun
Microsystems Inc., largely considered an avowed opponent of Open XML
because of its own development and support for the competing,
ODF-based StarOffice
suite, found itself in the unexpected position of stating its support
for ratifying Open XML -- albeit after some changes in the proposal
are made.
"We
wish to make it completely clear that we support DIS 29500 becoming
an ISO Standard and are in complete agreement with its stated
purposes of enabling interoperability among different implementations
and providing interoperable access to the legacy of Microsoft Office
documents," Jon
Bosak, a Sun representative to V1,
wrote
in an e-mail
to other committee members over the weekend. "Sun voted No on
Approval because it is our expert finding, based on the analysis so
far accomplished in V1, that DIS 29500 as presently written is
technically incapable of achieving those goals, not because we
disagree with the goals or are opposed to an ISO Standard that would
enable them."
Sun "found
itself in the unexpected position of stating its support for
ratifying OOXML"? What???? This is the official position
of Sun?
For the near five years that i have been a member of
the OASIS ODF TC, Sun has opposed any and all efforts to improve
interoperability with Microsoft applications, documents, and bound
workgroup-workflow business processes.
This goes all the way
back to the very first TC meeting on December 14th, 2002, when the
enterprise publication, content and archive management contingent of
the OASIS TC wanted the ODF charter amended to include as one of the
primary objectives, "compatibility with existing file formats
and interoperability with existing applications".
And
yes, that charter change specifically included compatibility and
interoperability with Microsoft applications, documents and
processes!!
Sun opposed that change and has consistently
opposed all interoperability enhancements since.
So now we
have the odd and embarrassing situation where the one ODF vendor who
steadfastly opposed interoperability with Microsoft products and
documents, has now taken the position that the world needs to ratify
OOXML as a ISO standard because ODF can not fill that need?
You've
got to be kidding me! This is an outrage.
Someone
needs to go back to that 2004 agreement between Microsoft and Sun.
You know, the one that saved Sun the company! These is clear
evidence throughout the years of ODF discussions that Sun has traded
ODF universal interoperability for a sweet sweet hardware deal with
Microsoft. Overwhelming evidence.
They traded away our universal interoperability as if it were a
corporate asset. An asset they owned and designed to barter for
advantage. And barter they did.
There are three characteristics Sun has steadfastly opposed. And
now we finally have an explanation other than that the StarOffice
Hamburg was stuck in 1995.
These characteristics are important because the world is not a
clean slate. Microsoft Office controls over 95% of the existing
documents, applications and bound workgroup-workflow business
processes. Governments, enterprises and organizations of all sizes
need to migrate their existing documents, applications and business
processes to XML. The question is, “Which XML? ODf or OOXML?”
Without these three characteristics, ODf becomes impossible to
implement given where the world today finds itself – 95% bound to
MSOffice:
Compatibility with existing file formats – including MS
binary documents
Interoperability with existing applications – including
MSOffice applications
Convergence :: the application-platform-vendor independent
portable file format ability to fluidly and transparently transition
desktop-server-device-web information systems.
Sun's opposition to and failure to support the interoperability
enhancements to ODf that would have addressed these concerns is a
matter of public record. They held the door open for OOXML, and for
sure the payoff was rich. But what about those of us who really
believed that ODf could become that elusive universal file format,
and spent years trying?
They sold us out!
~ge~
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