Reliance upon Microsoft products :(

I have been happily working at a consulting firm for some time and am dismayed by how much the world relies upon Microsoft software. It seems as if no one realizes that, more often than not, there are very good alternatives out there. Many of these alternatives end up being better than Microsoft’s offerings because they comply with open standards.

Let’s use Microsoft Office 2007 as an example. The binary .doc file format has become a standard despite its closed nature. There has been pressure placed on Microsoft to release an open format. They came up with Office Open XML and made it the default format in Office 2007. This was, in my opinion, to prod users to employ the new format.

The problems are two-fold. First, there is already an open file format that has been approved by OASIS called the Open Document format. This means that it is already an international standard. Microsoft and several other key industry players are trying to get Office Open XML fast-tracked into becoming a standard. The second problem is that the Office Open XML format is largely designed around the feature set of Microsoft Office and not a ground-up rewrite in order to come up with a format that will work well across the board.

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish… The Microsoft way. Embrace the idea of an open file format for the future. Extend the idea by creating your own despite there being a perfectly acceptable and internationally recognized format freely available. Make your new format the default in your new products making it a hassle for users of the new software and old alike and gradually prodding users to adopt your new format.

I am going to try to point clients towards the products that will work best for them. In some cases these will be Microsoft products, but not always. Just because it came from Microsoft does not mean that it is a dependable product.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 9:03 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Reliance upon Microsoft products :(

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