Cranky Geeks rip OOXML

I always have a 2 month backlog of podcasts because fortunately I don't spend too much time in the car. This morning, I started catching up with Cranky Geeks, a vidcast of John C Dvorak and his fellow cranks who gripe about the state of technology today.

I was surprised when they brought up the topic of OOXML. Here is a transcript (and my emphasis in bold) of their conversation (mp4 mp3):

John C Dvorak, Chief Crank, "dvorak.org/blog"

Sebastian Rupley, Co-Crank, Editorial Director, PCMagCast.com

Lance Ulanoff, Editor-in-Chief, PC Magazine

Veronica Belmont, Host/Producer, Mahalo Daily

Time: 15:00

JD: Microsoft OOXML has finally passed... Anybody here have a clue .. because Microsoft has been fighting it, fighting it fighting it, ... what do they want this for?

SR: Because the OpenDocument Format was the competitor for this, which is what the open source community wanted, and that would be basically and easy translatable way from all kinds of products, from open source to commercial products to exchange documents. Microsoft has its eyes on a proprietary type of format based on XML based on all its ...

JD: ... buts its gotta be open, its gotta be a standard, not proprietary .. ?

SR: Its not open though, this is really a shame I think that this went through. There also are some rumours, that there were voting irregularities, that Microsoft pulled stunts, in getting this passed. It means we have to jump through hoops like getting the translator to download, mobile translator that they have now,  for the 'x' documents that we do. Its a pain and it shouldnt happen ...

VB: Is this the DOCX? It confused the hell out of my mom I can tell you.

LU: It is driving people in the office and my office CRAZY, because every once in a while, a docx file shows up. Now if you want to open it you got to download the compatibility module for Office 2003.

SR: And its not just DOCX too, I get people sending me PPTX. "I cant open this PowerPoint, could you open it and rename it, save it to your disk and resend it back to me so that I can open it?"

VB: My dad installed the newest version of office on my Mom's computer at home, and she's not techie, but she uses Word everyday. And suddenly all her files were DOCX. And she was trying to open things, and send things to co-workers, and she just couldn't figure it out. ...

Im like .. thats ..?

SR: Its ridiculous

LU: There should be a rule that we are not allowed to go past 3 characters for file extensions.

JD: What is the point of docx?[1]

LU: Its like XML is a widely used standard for companies to inter-operate because they will have a structured document. Its a big document so theres a kind of description of what the document is going to be like, and then there is the different parts plug in to that, and as long as you have those two things riding separately, you can easily change stuff and have a whole vast set of documents changed.

At the desktop level, I dont entirely understand what the massive benefit is going to be, I think Microsoft understands it better than others, er, I have no idea whether or not they push people hard, but Microsoft wants to own something ...

JD: whats the thing on that movie 'Officespace', the guy who always had the TP report or whatever it was: TPS report ...

SR: Yes, its funny when they bring the birthday cake out "Whats the cake to person ratio" .. ?

JD: that would be for this report, you can make one change, and not worry about changing the coversheet, because it all would be automated. So I think they would be watching that movie too often apparently in Microsoft.

[1] It was pretty accurate up to the point Lance tries to explain what OOXML was, and when John tries to equate OOXML as a templating engine. Ah well, at least Sebastian Rupley really gets it and understands how harmful OOXML is as an international standard. It would have been better if he had more "airtime" in explaining the issues regarding this. And perhaps even elaborating on the "irregularities".

What is really interesting is how these people "in the know" have real world experience of these new file formats in the wild, and what the reaction is to them. Like the uptake of Vista, its pretty much negative.

Its also funny that the segment before this was about the April Fools pranks which occurred online. I think its quite unfortunate for Microsoft that their hollow victory (if its one at all) would fall on April the First. Well, whether the joke's on us or not, OOXML to me will always be remembered as the April Fools' Standard.

yk.

ps. Where's the Final Text for DIS 29500? Shouldnt it be out oh, 12 days ago? I should have guessed and expected as much, though; Microsoft has always found it difficult to released anything in time. Im just surprised that ISO has allowed their enshrined processes to be infected by the Microsoft vapourware release cycles so quickly. I would have thought maybe OOXML v1.2 or v2.0. But even before v1.0? Shurely... Is this considered yet another irregularity in the process? Maybe they are hiding it from us so that we have less time to review the changes before the deadline to appeal on 1st June. How are we expected to go through 6000 7000 8000 pages in the next 2 weeks?

Comments

[Rick Jelliffe]

You seem to be implying that changing the default save format of Office to one that does not have universal adoption (e.g. .DOC to .DOCX) is a flaw in OOXML in particular.

But why is it any different from for .DOC to .ODT for example? Surely it is all is just part of the cost of adopting standards, regardless of whatever the format(s) is (are)?

All the complaints you mention would have been just as applicable for .ODT as for .DOCX, surely?

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe

[yoonkit]

Hi Rick,

Its true that the basic gripe by the other 2 cranks was the fact that there was a change in the default file type, from Doc to Docx.

However most of the cranks were not exposed to the problems of OOXML. Only Sebastian Rupley seemed informed on the issues regarding Docx, which is probably why he said that OOXML should not have gone through, and would have rather ODF as the easily translatable way of exchanging documents between all types of products, proprietary or open sourced.

I guess what we should note is that the Microsoft claims that their "customers" demanded OpenXML really falls flat.

Customers would either have stuck with the old binary docs (those who don't really care), or they would prefer ODF (those who do care about vendor neutral formats).

yk.

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