I know it's off topic, but...

[James Knott]

John Myshrall wrote:
> Zbigniew Koziol wrote:
>> On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 6:47 PM, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> 
>> wrote:
>>  
>>> Mel Wilson wrote:
>>>    
>>>> Lennart Sorensen wrote:
>>>>      
>>>>> On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 09:42:17PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
>>>>>        
>>>>>> It's nice to see Microsoft finally supporting ODF.  Not only are they
>>>>>> supporting it, but doing so before OOXML will be supported!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05-21ExpandedFormatsPR.mspx 
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There have been several other news articles today reporting on this.
>>>>>>  Check groklaw.net for links.
>>>>>>           
>>>>> If they ever actually show it in a working state, then I will believe
>>>>> it.  Until then, it's just a distraction.  Nothing more.
>>>>>         
>>>> I rather think it's their only hope.  According to latest two 
>>>> articles in
>>>> the blog "An Antic Disposition" <http://www.robweir.com/blog/> even 
>>>> OOXML
>>>> can't be shown in a working state.
>>>>
>>>>       
>>> I suspect, or at least hope, that with that and:
>>> 1) EU pressure
>>> 2) Outrage over OOXML & ISO
>>> 3) Customer pressure
>>> they've realized the time has come to properly support ODF.
>>>     
>>
>> I would not be so optimistic.
>>
>> As Lennart noticed, they will use every opportunity to mess up with a
>> standard. ODF is a relatively new standard and, as such, certainly has
>> logical flows embeded there. Any problem with ODF they will likely use
>> for their own advantage.
>>
>> While OOXML possibly has been created just for reverting attention
>> from ODF project. Possible? Yes. If to believe in various opinions
>> about its complexity, it is likely that they do not know themself yet
>> how to implement it.

It appears ISO problems may have had something to do with this:
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080523052458101

So, perhaps MS has now realized there will be only one ISO standard 
format and it ain't OOXML!

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