I guess this is a reasonable test to call the bluff that is the ooxml specification and of MS’s implementation (or alleged) of it.
I cannot test it for myself [a) no windows b) no msoffice 2007 for RHEL/Fedora] so I will have to go with what others say.
Now it will be interesting to see how Alex Brown’s test results will be spun with MSspeak.
The Microsoft “spin” is pretty straight forwards really.
The ISO process did a good job of incorporating a great deal of global feedback that was presented by the national standards bodies, and as you might expect the spec changed in the process.
Right now we’re waiting on the ITTF to release the final text so we can all take a look at it. Once that is done we have publically committed to supporting IS29500 in Microsoft Office. As I say, not all that complex. There are no great mysteries, and it would be pretty much impossible for it to be any other way.
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/letters/ChrisCapOpenLetter.mspx
We’ve listened to the global community and learned a lot, and we are committed to supporting the Open XML specification that is approved by ISO/IEC in our products.
I hope that helps.
We should plan on meeting sometime, I’m home in Singapore most of this week, then away for two. I would love to have a longer discussion with you on some of these topics.
Oliver
Love the spin, Oliver. I rather NOT have a spin, but addressing the comments in that conformance testing failure. Not doing so, and pointing to a some handwaving statement by Chris is not how a dialog happens.
While it is true that there was a lot of feedback from around the world, there are still many, many issues pending that has not been resolved. There was no final document made available (in 5 parts no doubt) and national bodies had to vote in good faith that they will not be cheated.
Here is what I would like to see come out of Microsoft:
a) Native Linux MS office suite
b) Default save as ODF in MS office – not the current half-hearted attempt to get someone else to write the plugin; I cannot believe that ms engineers cannot do this themselves. If it perfectly fine to do it as an open source project via sourceforge and the code so built should be on GPLv3.
c) Join Open Invention Network and commit all patents to the public commons.
And out of curiousity, please explain this.
We have much more things to work on – global warming comes to mind – that we should stop naval gazing and get things going.
It is hardly spin. I’m not sure how you expect a document that was saved before the standard was ratified to comply with a final revision of that standard.
Does the current release of OpenOffice comply with the 2009/2010 revision of IS26300? I’ll be sure to save myself a document later today, then once the revised standard has passed through the system I’ll test conformance and let you know.
As for global warming – somebody dropped a link to the “world clock” into my inbox while I was away, it pulls data from various sources on a range of world issues. Frightening stuff. http://osrin.net/2008/04/22/the-world-clock/
Oliver
OK, I stand corrected. It is not a spin.
Still awaiting an explanation to Doug Mahugh’s IASA Malaysia representation.
MS Office 2007
Hi,
Found your blog via planet.anomalistic.org, and glad to find a good Linux blog locally here.
Nothing relating to OOXML, but would like to tell Microsoft this:
I have been tolerating your practices for years, turning blind eyes towards you, but what finally pushed me to Linux is ironically your shining Microsoft Office 2007 with the supposedly new OOXML format.
Thank you for showing me the light Microsoft, now all 4 of my family PCs are Linux loaded with 2 running purely Linux.
Re: MS Office 2007
Kudos to you. I have had Linux running at home for all my machines for a long time now. The last windows I used was win 95 and for a short while win98.
Please help us promote software freedom and innovation. Please see what you can do for this year’s Software Freedom Day. The more people that are made aware of the choices and the innovation that is happening, the better. Microsoft is really an irrelevant entity (which I am sure some will object).