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SA stands in Microsoft's way

May 28 2008 14:26

Geneva - Microsoft has suffered a setback in its quest to make its Open XML format an internationally recognised standard for electronic documents.

South African officials say they have sent a letter of protest to two Geneva-based standards bodies that conducted a worldwide ballot on Microsoft's application to approve the file format.

The letter claims that the process was poorly conducted and rushed. It was sent to the International Standards Organisation and the International Electrotechnical Commission on May 22.

A spokesperson for the International Electrotechnical Commission said Wednesday the appeal would be examined and an attempt to resolve the complaint will be made within a month. Microsoft could not immediately be reached.

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TheOne
Jun 04 2008 08:31 Report this comment

Microsoft is sending private investigators to their own resellers to entrap them with piracy. The reason it is entrapment is because the software being sold is legitimate Microsoft software, but they are not happy with that. The investigator interacts with the unsuspecting victim, entrapping them with whatever they can (such a downloaded free version of a trial Office that is available from the Microsoft site - 60 day free trial of Office).

UBUNTU
May 28 2008 17:02 Report this comment

Migrate to Linux - Ubuntu - I spent 25 years of my life on MS platforms and decided to take giant leap.

J.
May 28 2008 16:54 Report this comment

Maybe MS should first push for affordable and bug-free OS's. I am in the unlucky position of having VISTA on my notebook. It looks good, crashes less than 98/95, but if it was truly finished, why then the constant updates download? (and I cannot get HW2 to run at all....)

Christo
May 28 2008 15:46 Report this comment

"Not in Africa, and have not been for the past 5 years". Thanx, so how the hell do you know how things are?? Come back, stay for a while, and we will talk again. Roads falling apart, load shedding, taxi's doing what they want. O, and you say "Elect people", that is a little gem of a comment!! I don't vote ANC, but the 30 milj uneducated people in this country does, democracy in action! Trying to stay positive, as I've been doing for the last year or so, is a BIG challenge.

Douglas
May 28 2008 15:36 Report this comment

Hey Dude, I am not even in Africa and have not been there for the past five years, but know what is happening. The same things happen in first world countries for your infor. It is not the government or "African Time" but people like yourself who do nothing to change the situation and elect people who have no interest on the people's needs. Africans are smart people, just need to change the mental setting. Note, African, means any person who was born in Africa and lives there, white, black, indian, etc

EtienneK
May 28 2008 15:25 Report this comment

To everyone giving flack to SA, please go read up on the whole MS Open Office XML saga. MS are wrong here, not SA. Props to our people for sticking it to the big guys.

Christo
May 28 2008 15:16 Report this comment

Douglas, you say you have been "in the world" (sic), probably in the rest of Africa! Boet, where have you been doing business where Africa Time does not exist? Eskom, Telkom, gov dptment, bond reg'ing, 2010 stadiums, to name but a few examples?? It's sad, (I admit we might be correct on this XML file format), but we remain a 3rd world country, and things are not looking up.

Slaptjips
May 28 2008 15:13 Report this comment

Can someone please inform me why MS does not want to embrace the ODF format? Is it because of potential revenue loss or is it just because they want to be different?


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