Microsoft: We were railroaded in Massachusetts on ODF

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Deja vue all over again

Microsoft spent two years prior to the year with
Massachusetts going through these exact same
arguments with the European Union TAC commission.
It was the same thing, with the EU/TAC setting
their test for “openness”, and Microsoft arguing
endlessly that MSXML and the MSXML Reference
License are “open enough”. It's been the same
thing now going into it's fourth year of
silliness!

IMHO, there's “open enough”, and “enough is
enough”. I say, enough is enough already. We
know Microsoft is not going to compromise. The
test for “openness” put forward by both the EU
and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are
reasonable and considerate of all the issues
needed to drive a competitive marketplace of
digital solutions. Time for everyone to move on,
and if Microsoft decides to participate, fine.
They know the terms all too well. The door was
left open.

Microsoft is still a registered member of the
OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee. If they
have technical problems with the ODF
specification itself, then they should speak up.
Bring the criticisms and creative solutions
before the TC and let's get to it. Just quit
whining in public about problems that can be
solved in an open forum - one that awaits the
chance to crack these issues (whatever they might
be?), and deliver some real value to digital
citizens like Massachusetts, the EU, Norway, and
Australia.

The only thing that's railroading Microsoft is
their own megalomaniac and sociopath demands to
control through artificial and arbitrary software
dependencies information that doesn't belong to
them. When the rightful owners of information,
and the information processes they depend on,
stand up and assert their rights of ownership,
Microsoft shows it's true colors. Enough is
enough.

So is it time to move on to important things like
SOA, XForms, Metadata, and the XML:RDF bridge?
When Microsoft is ready to quit their incessant
whining and get back to the future of the Open
Internet, they know where to find the ODF. The
door might be open at Massachusetts. But MS has
long had a front row seat at OASIS ODF.

OBTW David. You have had the most magnificent
run of combat zone journalism the technology
community has ever witnessed. Simply
extraordinary reporting and coverage.

~ge~

Posted by: garyedwards@...   Posted on: 10/14/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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