Microsoft Office Supports ODF? AYE!

This is a follow on blog post from one of my first entries almost 2 years ago (7th July 2006) when I commented on Microsoft's announcement of their pseudo-support of ODF via the Clever-Age plugin.

Microsoft Office Supports ODF? Hardly!

I was optimistic when I read about  Microsoft Expands Document Interoperability - Company to Sponsor Open Source Project for Open XML-ODF File Translation to Deliver More Choice for Government Customers and Their Constituents. Optimistic because I thought that this company finally "got it" and understood the intention of the ODF, to make documents universally exchangeable.

However my hopes were dashed as I read more into the press release ...

So when I heard that there was talk about Microsoft supporting ODF last night, I was, as most people were, sceptical. And why shouldnt we be? After all, we heard over and over again, by the same mouthpieces of Microsoft, over the same issue, that Microsoft is all about "choice" and customer demands and yet hypocritically bars the choice their customers demand for native support of ODF in their dominant software applications.

I blogged about this apparent inability for Microsoft (and their spokespeople) to see how silly they sounded, this back in April 2007:

Choice to Choose

... So in reality, one standard promotes interoperability, and with interoperability, you get healthy competition and innovation between competing applications, and ultimately choice and a better marketplace for consumers like Malaysians.

We must not confuse "choice of standards" with the "choice of applications" which support the standard. There should just be one standard and multiple applications implementing that specific standard.

... This is the real "choice" which the market demands, and we must make it clear to vendors that this is the only direction Malaysia should head towards if we intend to claim back the ownership of the data and documents we create.

Then in August 2007, it was drummed into us that the reason why Microsoft is not providing native support for ODF is because "there is no Customer demand." All this while Governments around the world started working towards adopting ODF as their standard of choice! The reason why Microsoft did not see "customer demand" was because they had a rather myopic view of what their definition of what a customer is. They do not see you or I as their customers. They sell to resellers, distributors, ISVs ... people who do not see the value in ODF and may even view ODF as a threat to their businesses. So of course they can claim that there is no customer demand.

Then a few weeks ago (April 2008), we had the famous words of Malaysia's very own Yasmin Mahmood, "The industry just wants to have the best innovation; they want to have the freedom of choice. The whole idea is not about choosing, it's about having a choice ... and that is what customers and partners want." And oh, did I go on a rant (which I really enjoyed):

But if Microsoft really has the interests of "choice" for their customers, why then don't they really, walk the talk, and provide choice of ODF in their products? Why are they restricting my choice as an end user who prefers the better ISO standard? Do they really practice what they preach? Why is there less choice in their products?

Why do they complain so loudly when their 'formats' are not considered and yet are so blatant about leaving out competing formats in their products? Why is Novell so much more capable in building OOXML support in OpenOffice.org and Microsoft, a vastly larger company with teams of developers having such difficulty writing ODF support in their products?

Considering that she would (or should) have received the memo that Microsoft Office would be supporting ODF then, I wonder how she can, with a straight face push the "demand" of OOXML, when she knows for a fact, that the emerging demand is for ODF? After all, all the OOXML projects which she stated were fully sponsored by Microsoft themself. Is that demand? I guess sincerity flows easily for marketeers.

I actually emailed her a long time ago, after a TC4 meeting back in 16th December 2006. In it I said (with certain parts removed to protect the not-so-innocent):

Dear Yasmin,

It was a pleasure meeting with you yesterday at SIRIM TC4. Its interesting how Microsoft is willing to invest time and effort in this issue at such an early stage.

As mentioned in our conversation, ODF is a significant improvement to the way we manage documents for the future. It is something which the world is recognising and will be the global trend for the next 5-10 years.

With your intentions to mould Microsoft Malaysia into a better corporate citizen, I hope you take time to reflect the responsibilities you have, and consider the alternatives to the current strategy you are taking.

The support for the ODF Add-in is a significant step towards Microsofts new found direction towards truly opening up its interests and competing on the features and value to Malaysian customers.

I hope that you can re-affirm this direction by supporting ODF more fully in the Malaysian context.

Its an undeniable fact that Microsoft makes great products. Channel your resources in better products: great UI's, more features and make sure that interoperability is ensured via open standards like ODF.

Show your customers that you dont have to hide behind artificial barriers, and are not afraid of competing honestly in a technology neutral market.

Remember, this was written a long time ago. Before I had first hand experience of how contentious this issue could become. Before I had ever been a target. Before Vista. What is interesting that it has taken them so long to realise the obvious.

My last post I discussed Microsoft's wasted opportunities in becoming a good ICT citizen. They want to appear to be open, but their original noble intentions never translates well into actions, from their ODF plugin to their "Open Source Interoperability Initiative", they unfortunately appear evil instead, so you really can't blame us for being very cynical about any future, past or present Microsoft "Initiatives".

However, I am an optimist, and I do hope that the Microsofties driving ODF support in core Microsoft applications are sincere in their intent. So far, I don't see too much of the smarmy doublespeak this time in their press release, and I really applaud the guys for that. Although they tried to dilute the ODF subject with PDF (didnt they already have that last year?) and XPS (who really uses that?) and UOF (ni hui jiang ODF ma?), the message is quite clear.

So overall, its very encouraging. I hope Microsoft follows through with this announcement, and does not mess it up when they finally release the patch.

Before today, it used to be very hard in taking these statements seriously  ...

"...  it is very important that customers have the freedom to choose from a range of technologies to meet their diverse needs."
-  July 2006 Jean Paoli, GM of Interoperability and XML architecture at Microsoft

... but now its definitely reads a lot less hypocritical.

Kudos Microsofties, and I wish your team and efforts well!

yk.

Comments

[Luc Bollen]

"XPS (who really uses that?)"

Just a quick look at Google:
- a search for "filetype:pdf" returns 69.900.000 documents
- a search for "filetype:xps" returns 1.450 documents.

Yep, XPS files in Gooogle represents O,002% of the number of PDF files. 'nough said.