The Document Foundation criticizes the EU Commission for exclusively using Microsoft's XLSX format in the Cyber Resilience Act consultation.
  • CactusEcho@piefed.socialEnglish
    17 hours

    I fully support this. This is a very easy to implement. 99% of the documents don’t require specific msoffice undocumented features that odf format doesn’t support

    • Lifter@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      6 hours

      Yes, it would probably force microsoft to adhere to the specs if their files didn’t work more users.

  • Beep@lemmus.orgEnglish
    14 hours

    The actual article— Hacker News.

    And also:

    The European Commission has accepted our request, and starting from today – Friday March 6 – has added the Open Document Format ODS version of the spreadsheet to be used to provide the feedback. We are grateful to the people working at DG CONNECT, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, for responding to our request within 24 hours. At this point, the rest of this message is no longer relevant, and the call for action is no longer necessary.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21 hours

    “OOXML” is literally just an XML serialization of MS Office internal data structures that Microsoft bribed the standards body to push through.

    • B-TR3E@feddit.orgEnglish
      20 hours

      “bribed” is a gross simplifiction of the almost hilariously evil plot they pulled to get OOXML certified. They actually bribed a couple of smaller nation states to become IETF members and vote for Microsoft’s standard. It was a major scandal back in the day but formally legal.

      • utopiah@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4 hours

        It’s like noticing a car crash and looking back… you know you shouldn’t and yet it’s somehow mesmerizing. So… where can I actually read about this please?

      • Theoriginalthon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14 hours

        I remember, only trouble is a lot of people at the time didn’t care or were paid loads of money to not care.

        Also the name Office Open XML right at the time OpenOffice was the only one about before oracle came in and fucked it over

      • Exatron@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13 hours

        I remember that plot also gumming up IETF business because the bribed nations just stopped participating after voting for Microsoft.

    • MisterD@lemmy.caEnglish
      20 hours

      FYI: it wasn’t a bribe. It was a temporary takeover of the standards body. They paid for memberships of a bunch of new people on the board for the critical vote.

        • Jeffool @lemmy.worldEnglish
          14 hours

          I think saying that they “bribed the standards body” suggests the body was in on it. The actual allegation (I don’t know any facts, just these comments) seems to be that the body was subverted by other countries that were bribed by Microsoft. Being someone who doesn’t know the details there’s a worthwhile distinction there. Though that still opens questions about the board’s reaction, and I might read up on it all later.

          • B-TR3E@feddit.orgEnglish
            13 hours

            Let me assure you that the original board that was voting for Open Office’s proposal was absolutely pissed off, short of dissolving but eventually unable to revert the decision because of it’s formal correctness.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1 day

    which complicates compatibility with open-source software such as LibreOffice.

    Or any competitor. Which is why this “standard” should be declared anticompetitive.

    • testaccount372920@piefed.zipEnglish
      4 hours

      csv is a pretty good data sharing format, but not very well suited for spreadsheets. Just because you can shove anything you want in there doesn’t mean you should.

    • ranzispa@mander.xyzEnglish
      14 hours

      CSV does not allow storing formulas, just results. It is a good format to share data, but it is not a good format to store spreadsheets which very often contain such formulas.

      • jdr@lemmy.mlEnglish
        14 hours

        Formulas are just strings, no reason you couldn’t store over in a CSV.

        Maybe your software doesn’t want you to do that, but that’s a problem with that specific software.

          • jdr@lemmy.mlEnglish
            12 hours

            It’s an option when saving in LibreOffice Calc.

            Would be a pretty straightforward macro to (un)quote the formulas in Excel or Google Sheets etc.

        • rollin@piefed.socialEnglish
          13 hours

          I don’t think you can have spreadsheets with multiple “sub sheets” (can’t think of an unambiguous name for them - basically the equivalent of browser tabs)

          Pretty sure there’s no way to have graphical charts either.

  • twinnie@feddit.ukEnglish
    24 hours

    I kinda get it though. I think every single time in my life I’ve sent a document in the non-Microsoft format I’ve got a reply saying they couldn’t open it. That’s from LibreOffice and from Mac.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21 hours

      And everytime I get a document in a Microsoft format I send a reply asking if this or that is supposed to look that way or be that value. Yet it’s the open format and tools that’s an issue somehow.

      • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
        19 hours

        One thing I do like from LibreOffice is the ability to save to PDF but also embed the original document inside it.

        That way almost anyone can see it as intended, and the original is still there for editing.