Open Letter to Mary Jo (Foley)...

Dear Mary Jo-

Microsoft is just about flumoxed by the world's reaction at JTC 1, the push-back on their XML file format. They have stopped all community people and managers from blogging (ostensibly until they figure out a response and can coordinate a carefully worded response that's on-message...let's see how long that takes).

You gave a rather blase' post about the ODF v OOXML formats being important. (Or rather gave a PR window for Tom Robertson to run his interop marketing bullshit. Making yourself a direct extension of Microsoft's voice makes you part of the problem.) It demonstrated a milque-toast commitment to the biggest story since the limp reception to Vista, and, now, the collapse of MS Live. I was disappointed since having come to expect such a lot from you.

Here's the real story that everybody gets -- except maybe you and Microsoft. If you'd like to justify your bandwidth as a blogger, why don't you enquire with them about the dependencies upon that file format, "Microsoft Office Open XML", which cascade throughout their software stack -- from IE7, Vista, Exchange/Sharepoint through SQL Server and GreatPlains/Dynamics? What I am getting at -- because we need to be explicit here in arcane formatland -- is that changes required to the format made to address the objections of the many national bodies having voted at ISO will force coding changes in many new Microsoft products. Our argument has always been: "THIS IS WHY THIS FORMAT IS BAD FOR OUR HEALTH!!!! It's why "Microsoft Office Open XML" is not fit to be a global standard."

I recognize a piece like this would cannibalize your principal news source, but I still think of you as an old-school, gum-shoe journalist who's bright enough to understand the currents of journalism, as well as ask the right questions. It would be a wonderful piece! And, besides, there are other software fish in the sea -- now.

Respectfully yours,
-Sam Hiser

Comments

[zridling]

I've noticed quite a bit of cheerleading for OXML on ZDNet. John Carroll and David Berlind wrote a few posts that read like copy he was given directly from Microsoft, as if he was channeling his best Judith Miller impersonation. Their undertone carries the implication that anything that doesn't buy into OXML is anti-capitalist. You really have to twist reality to come to that conclusion.

It's a defining moment in their careers as columnists (or ZDNet bloggers) that they appear to be memorizing Microsoft's talking points on OXML while only skimming the facts on ODF. I tested Novell's translator all day today and found it worked as poorly as the MCAN translator, meaning it was more trouble than it was worth; a piece of junk code.

[Sam]

Zaine-

For the record, it is the MCAN translator: they are one and the same. The 'N' in MCAN is Novell.

Depressing to know that Berlind is on the Dark Side. That was not always apparent to me.

[Stephane Rodriguez]

Novell's translator is just a build of CleverAge's translator with an OpenOffice-compatible UNO package bundle on top of it.

So it's as useless. That's expected since that has always been Microsoft agenda.

Michal Meeks (a contributor of Novell's OpenOffice builds) joined the CleverAge source forge project a while ago for that matter.

It's interesting that Novell is now officially a Microsoft subsidiary.

[Jason]

I post on ZDNet, and whenever I have a point to make to the MS cronies, it is never countered. I'll bet $10 that the same goes for this letter. Carroll is the worst offender.