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Why ODF and not OOXML - TDF Community Blog
blog.documentfoundation.orgMany interpreted the last article in this series as an attack on Microsoft for using the OOXML format against users’ interests. However, this was only one of my objectives, as I also wanted to raise users’ awareness of fake open-source software, such as OnlyOffice, which partners with Microsoft in a strategy to lock users in. Users are already aware of the advantages of standard, open formats because they access sites every day whose content is accessible thanks to the HTML format. This is a standard, open format that was first developed and then defended by its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. He prevented Microsoft from transforming it into a proprietary format with Internet Explorer 6. This forced users to have two versions of a site: one in a standard format and one in a proprietary format. Fortunately, Microsoft’s strategy failed in the case of HTML because the W3C – unlike the ISO – never recognised the changes to the format “forced” by Internet Explorer as valid. This was because Internet Explorer did not display sites in the standard format correctly. Ultimately, this forced the company to develop a browser that complies with all standards, thus allowing users to choose their preferred browser
how does using docx lock users to microsoft? you can use onlyoffice to open and edit docx, ya dont need microsoft 365? pls explain to me guys
I’ve had a resume and a work report, both look good for me but totally broken in word.
In my experience this means that the only way to be sure that your docx document is going to look right when shared with other people is to use MS Word, thereby locking us all in.
but this is really only true and a problem for the end user, and you can’t maintain an empire by refusing to collaborate with the larger userbase.
that’s how Adobe became an industry standard. They eventually claimed the larger userbase and businesses had to adapt or spend millions on training.
“The end-user” is another way to say “everyone in the developed world”, and nobody is refusing to collaborate with Microsoft here. What has happened is that Microsoft then agreed to collaborate, did so in bad faith, and released what they are calling and open standard, but it is neither open nor standard.
OnlyOffice appears to be trying their best to adhere to this “standard”, but their best efforts are still resulting in substantial rendering differences of the same document in OnlyOffice and Word. That means to me that at least one of the following must be true:
The dubious events around the establishment and adoption of this “standard” make me lean strongly toward the 3rd option,which is in keeping with entire documented history of Microsoft’s hostile, aggressive, and bad faith business practices.
Microsoft-supported formats are badly documented, and regularly broken by updates of the software before changes are understood (if there’s even an update to the loose spec we used to have). That’s a problem.
Microsoft will break compatibility as soon as they want to, leaving onlyoffice docx users with no option than buying Microsoft Office, eventually.