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Microsoft Accuses IBM of Blocking ISO Fast-Track Approval of Office Open XML

February 13, 2008 Blog No Comments

Microsoft fired the latest salvo in the increasingly antagonistic document standards debate last week when the company accused IBM of orchestrating efforts to block ISO fast-track approval of Office Open XML, a document format devised by Microsoft for its office software suite. IBM isn’t taking the accusations sitting down, however, telling Ars Technica that Microsoft is leading a fight against truly open standards.

“Regardless of the outcome of the standards debate,” writes Ryan Paul in Ars Technica, “Microsoft’s format will quickly become the de facto standard in private industry as companies adopt Office 2007. In the long run, a more rigorous inspection of OOXML is advantageous, because it could potentially bring improvements to the format that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. As a result of this protracted approval process, organizations that adopt OOXML will be able to do so with greater confidence than would be possible if Microsoft had been permitted to railroad it through fast-track approval without this scrutiny.”