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From the start, however, staunch opponents and competitors of Microsoft – primarily supporters of the pre-existing ISO standard for document interchange among office productivity applications -- known as OpenDocument Format or ODF – railed against OOXML. The ODF true believers argue that there is no need for a second document interchange standard, and that even allowing one in the door could defeat the entire purpose of having such a standard in the first place – a single interchange format.

Beyond that, the ODF faithful also accuse Microsoft of using one dirty trick after another to try to assure that OOXML is adopted – in particular by stuffing the delegations of several nations with its own hand-picked supporters, and pressuring delegations to change their votes. Finally, the OOXML is around 6,000 pages, ODF backers say -- much too long and complicated to be properly considered in a fast track process. ODF, in comparison, is about a tenth that size.

Somewhat ironically, Durusau also was the editor of the ODF standard and is editing a pending update to that for the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). When ODF was ratified by ISO, it also went through the fast track process – although without all the bumps and spills that OOXML has experienced.

Interestingly, Durusau may be an ODF backer, but he's pragmatic too, and had some direct words for opponents of OOXML on his blog:

"What is puzzling in this day and age of quarterly reports and returns that any corporate governance structure would long tolerate spite as a business strategy. Or that investors would stay with companies that follow such strategies.

"OpenDocument supporters should be wishing that [OOXML] will be approved along with a new work item to amend it to fix the problems found at the BRM ... Any other wish is a walk in a cold rain with a Russian peasant wishing his neighbor's cow would die," his post said.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Meanwhile, Microsoft is continuing to promote OOXML -- under the presumption that it will win ISO status, or in spite of it if the submission fails. Late last week, in fact, the company announced a new Document Interoperability Initiative.

"The Document Interoperability Initiative focuses on bringing vendors together to promote interoperability between document format implementations through testing and refining those implementations, creation of … test suites, and the creation of templates designed for optimal interoperability between different formats," according to a Microsoft statement.

Microsoft plans to hold a series of interoperability test labs around the world, beginning in Cambridge, Mass. The labs will include testing interoperability between implementations of OOXML and ODF on "a variety of platforms and devices including Mac OS X Leopard, iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Linux and Windows Mobile," the statement said. Additionally, Microsoft also announced version 1.1 of an open source translator between ODF and Open XML for Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. The company sponsored the project, which will be available from SourceForge.

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