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Microsoft 'hurts user interests'
14/05/2008 07:09 - (SA)
Brussels - A British government agency
has told the European Commission that Microsoft Office works
poorly with rival software used in British schools, hurting the
interests of learners, teachers and parents.
Software programs must meet the same standards to work
together but the British agency said Microsoft offers only its
own "open standard" rather than effective support for Open
Document Format (ODF), which the agency said increases choice
for users.
Stephen Lucey, executive director of the British Educational
Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA), said the damage
goes beyond hurting competitors.
"Such barriers can also damage the interests of education
and training organisations, learners, teachers and parents",
Lucey said in a statement.
BECTA complained last year to Britain's Office of Fair
Trading and sent a copy to the European Commission this week.
"These are issues we are already looking at in the context
of the interoperability investigation we opened in January
2008," said Jonathan Todd, a spokesperson for the Commission.
Microsoft said in a statement it was "deeply committed" to
making its own programmes work smoothly with others.
"We have funded the development of tools to promote
interoperability between Office 2007 and products based on the
(Open Document Format) file format," the company said.
Problem 'goes beyond standards setting'
Lucey disagreed. He said Microsoft compounded problems for
non-technical users, making it hard to use ODF.
Microsoft's ODF converters have "limited functionality ...
and are poorly integrated into the overall Microsoft user
interface, as compared with, for example, the integration and
functionality Microsoft offers for its own OOXML format."
ODF is a non-propriety open file format whose full
specifications are available to all. It was originally developed
by Sun Microsystems Inc.
The European Commission is examining whether Microsoft
exerted improper influence over the International Standards
Organisation to expand the number of standards from one to two,
to include both ODF and Microsoft's own competing OOXML.
Critics say it makes no more sense to have two standards for
open software than it does to have two standards for railroad
gauges or for next-generation disc recordings, in which HD-DVD
recently bowed to the Blue Ray standard.
ECIS, a trade group which had filed the original, broad
complaint on interoperability against Microsoft, said the
company was trying to undermine the Open Document Format by
imposing its own standard, "with its serious interoperability
difficulties."
Lucey said that the problem with Microsoft goes beyond
standards setting. BECTA has also complained to Britain's Office
of Fair Trading about the conditions under which Microsoft
licences its software to schools.
Last week Microsoft appealed against an €899m
fine imposed by the European Commission for failing to comply
with requirements, originally imposed in 2004, that it permit
interoperability with server software.
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