Microsoft faces new EC clash

Europe is heading for a showdown with Microsoft over new file formats to be introduced with Office 12, the next version of the company’s office suite which is due to be launched late next year at the same time as Windows Vista.

The change promises to be something of a watershed, and not just because it affects applications used on nine in 10 of the world’s computers. It bases the default file formats for the first time on Extensible Markup Language (XML), making them more versatile and far more open to users and rivals alike.

The issue exercising EC officials, and likely to be examined closely by other organisations across the world, is just how open they will be. Europe is committed to using standard open formats for documents exchanged between member states under a programme called Interoperable Delivery of pan-European E-government Services for Adminstrations, Businesses, and Citizens (IDABC).

XML itself is an open standard but the Microsoft formats using it are not, as defined by IDABC, because they are not agreed by an open process, nor by an independent non-profit organisation. Barbara Held, described as a ‘detached national expert’ working with IDABC, said: ‘Microsoft could change them at any time.’

IDABC is ‘promoting’ the rival XML-based Open Document (Opendoc) format from the Oasis organisation. But it cannot yet adopt the standard because Oasis, like many standard-setting bodies, is a conglomeration of interested parties and therefore also not strictly independent. Sun, a leading light of Oasis and long-time foe of Microsoft, certainly has an agenda of its own.

But Oasis has submitted Opendoc to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) for approval, which could lead to its formal acceptance by IDABC.

The issues are far from straightforward. Held admits that Microsoft’s existing formats are already a de facto standard in the EC by virtue of the fact that just about everyone uses them, but she says IDABC is not concerned with what formats organisations used internally ­ only with how they talk across borders.

She said the EC might set aside the issue of open independent process and accept the Microsoft formats if the company supplied modules to convert them, so far as is possible, into Opendoc. But she added that there was one fact she could not stress enough: ‘The politicians in Europe are absolutely committed to open standards.’

Microsoft was fined about £350m by European competition commissioners in 2004 for alleged unfair use of its near monopoly.

See also How open is open?