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An Old Quarrel Returns
The Document Foundation, the developer behind the open-source office suite LibreOffice, has published a retrospective on the history of the OOXML format. The essay covers the years 2006 to 2008, when Microsoft sought international standard status for OOXML. The foundation accuses Microsoft of using the fast-track route and national standards committees to push the format through.
OOXML did become the ISO/IEC 29500 standard. Whether improper influence shaped that outcome remains disputed. The foundation offers its own judgment and historical material, and the matter drew sharp doubts at the time.
Two Formats Enter the Standards Race
ODF and OOXML reached standardization one after the other. Here is how the two paths ran.
- ODF: OASIS promoted the Open Document Format, and it became ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006.
- OOXML: Microsoft proposed it, and it became ECMA-376 in 2006. It then went to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for international certification through the fast track.
Both formats serve word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. ODF is the native format of LibreOffice. OOXML underpins the DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files that Microsoft Office uses every day.
A 6,000-Page Specification on a Fast Track
According to the foundation, the OOXML specification submitted to ISO ran to about 6,000 pages. Yet it went through a fast process designed for existing specifications. The first vote in 2007 missed the approval threshold.
In February 2008, delegates from 33 countries met in Geneva for a five-day ballot resolution meeting. They worked through the technical comments that national bodies had filed. ISO records describe the goal as resolving comments and negotiating changes.
The foundation, however, argues that the time limit and the sheer length made a full review impossible. After all, reading 6,000 pages takes a long time.
Shifting Membership in National Committees
Changes in committee membership also raised suspicion. The foundation points to Italy as an example. Within a few months, the Italian committee reportedly grew from 5 members to more than 80. Microsoft partners, along with related public relations and legal firms, were among them.
Media outlets of the period also reported the sudden growth in Italy. Norway and other countries likewise questioned representation and voting procedures.
Microsoft’s Side of the Story
Microsoft stressed at the time that OOXML enjoyed wide support. It said the technical comments collected by ISO helped refine the specification. It also blamed part of the opposition on its rival IBM.
In the end, OOXML passed the vote in 2008. In November of that year, ISO/IEC formally published the 29500 series of standards.
The Foundation’s Central Charge
Two facts stand side by side in this history. First, doubts surrounded the procedure. Second, the standard won approval anyway. The foundation reads the doubts as proof that Microsoft manipulated the international standards process.
That reading matches the foundation’s long-running criticism of Microsoft Office. The suite mainly uses the Transitional flavor of the format, which carries legacy compatibility elements.
Lock-In Concerns
The foundation believes this approach makes it harder for third-party software to implement the format fully. It also complicates document exchange between programs.
The foundation often publishes articles that attack Microsoft’s use of formats hard to match. In its view, the strategy weakens rivals’ compatibility and keeps users locked inside the Microsoft Office ecosystem. Readers should note that these are the foundation’s allegations, and Microsoft has long rejected similar claims.
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