Living In The Past

There have been some strange FUD-based arguments put forth around file formats lately. You'd think people would feel good about the openness that the industry has embraced: ODF is now ISO-ratified, and Open XML is moving rapidly through the Ecma standards process. The debate has shifted from "who has the best proprietary format?" to "which is the most flexible and capable open format?" -- that's great news for users, right?

Of course it is. But some folks still seem to fear that the sky is falling. Joe Wilcox, for example, has recently posted a skeptical take on whether Open XML is truly open.

Hey Joe, a lot has changed since you started beating that drum over a year ago! It's time for all of us to work to make these open standards better, and stop trying to force the world into a single approach. Don't let yourself become the Hiroo Onoda of file formats. :-)