The Linux Foundation on OOXML

   
  *LINUX FOUNDATION STATEMENT ON OOXML*
  

  On September 2, the comment and voting period will close on ISO/IEC DIS
29500, the draft specification based upon Microsoft's Office Open XML formats
(OOXML). The Linux Foundation (LF) has received questions from outside its
membership regarding its position on adoption of OOXML in its current form as
a global standard, and on the adoption process itself.
  

  By way of context: Central to the mission of the Linux Foundation, is the
creation of standards that become widely adopted. In furtherance of that
result, the Linux Foundation (then known as the Free Standards Group)
successfully submitted the Linux Standard Base (LSB) to ISO/IEC for adoption
through a process similar to that now being employed to review OOXML. The LSB
has now been implemented by all major distributions of Linux.
  

  As a result, the Linux Foundation is not only familiar with, but has a
vested interest in the preservation of the validity and integrity of the
global standards adoption process. When that process works well, everyone
wins. The modern world has become utterly dependent upon technology, and
therefore upon the ability of standards organizations to provide
interoperability and other open standards as well. With the conversion of
paper documents to digital formats, the world has also become utterly
dependent upon the ability of those documents to be accessed in the future.
Creation of documents in proprietary formats at best jeopardizes that
ability, and at worst guarantees that easy access in the future will be
impossible.
  

  Consequently, the Linux Foundation believes it is important for effective
and robust document format standards to be developed, and for those standards
to be universally adopted. In order for universal adoption to be achieved, it
is equally important for the process that creates those standards to be above
reproach.
  

  More specifically, the Linux Foundation supports the activities of the
Linux Desktop Architects and their work enhancing the Linux desktop. The
Linux Foundation believes that Linux on the desktop will become increasingly
widely deployed, and therefore the availability of robust, widely adopted -
and easily implemented - document format standards are of great importance to
those that develop, sell and use Linux in this way.
  

  Finally, the Linux Foundation notes that there already exists an ISO/IEC
standard intended for a similar purpose - the Open Document Format (ODF) -
that has been implemented in at least a dozen products, both open source as
well as proprietary. These products have been developed and released by
multiple vendors (including several Linux Foundation members). While the
current voting in ISO/IEC JTC1 is based upon the technical merits and issues
relating to OOXML, the Linux Foundation believes that the marketplace would
be better served by all vendors - including Microsoft - uniting around the
implementation and further development of a single, common specification.
Given the existence and prior ISO/IEC JTC1 adoption of ODF, and the fact that
OOXML (which is a new specification) will require translation of existing
documents as well, the Linux Foundation believes that the better platform for
that effort would be ODF.
  

  With that as prelude, the Linux Foundation offers the following advice to
those that are still considering how to vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500:
  

  1. The OOXML specification is extremely lengthy. Based upon all that we
have been able to learn, the review period that has been allowed is
insufficient to provide confidence that all issues that may need to be
resolved before OOXML could meet minimum quality standards. Accordingly, the
Linux Foundation believes that adoption of OOXML, after addressing only those
issues that have been identified to date, would be unwise.
  

  2. That said, there have already been hundreds of issues that have been
raised. While some of these issues are minor, many are not. The Linux
Foundation believes that OOXML is simply not mature enough at this point to
be granted approval as an ISO/IEC standard. Many, but not all, of these
issues have been summarized here
<http://www.noooxml.org/local--files/arguments/TheCaseAgai...>.
  

  3. ISO/IEC standards are supposed to reference other globally adopted
standards where those standards exist. In the case of OOXML, many proprietary
Microsoft specifications have been referenced. In some cases (e.g., language
codes, vector graphics), Microsoft has used its own, internal codes and
specifications rather than already existing, publicly available alternatives.
This not only violates ISO/IEC rules, but also puts in question whether
implementers can fully implement OOXML without infringing intellectual
property rights (IPR) of Microsoft. Will those IPRs be available? If so, upon
what terms will they be available? The answers to these questions appear to
be currently unknown.
  

  4. OOXML is specific to Windows and other Microsoft products. It is
uncertain whether OOXML-based documents will be easily created, saved, and
opened using other operating systems - like Linux - and applications, with or
without converters or translators. An international standard should be
created in the first instance to be neutral to all operating systems and
other products.
  

  For all these reasons and more, the Linux Foundation calls upon those
National Bodies that have not yet cast their votes to vote "No, with
comments." Those comments should reflect their best, neutral, technical
judgment, based upon OOXML in its current form. Only by doing so, we believe,
can both the future availability of documents, but the integrity of the
standard setting process be assured.