Microsoft is putting the cat among the pigeons once again by submitting its
XPS specification for standards approval. Time was when a standards
submission would have raised goodwill but in Microsoft’s case this does not
seem to apply.
Is this just the Hate Microsoft brigade at it again? It can seem at times
that if Microsoft found a cure for cancer and made it freely available then
Sun and IBM would raise a frivolous objection to it.
However, there are grounds for suspicion. Ecma does not have the respect of
all, being seen by some as a fast-track way to create stamps of approval.
Second, XPS – unlike Office Open XML that was also pushed out to Ecma –
challenges a de facto standard in the form of Adobe’s PDF document reader.
Third, Microsoft stands accused of tying its standards efforts in a bind
with its own tools rather than offering a truly non-denominational
platform.
The near-term effect may be that users and vendors hedge their bets by
supporting both XPS and PDF. But there may also be a benefit in that Adobe
is encouraged to play on a level field and users gain choice. With these
outcomes in mind, it may not be overly optimistic to suggest that
Microsoft’s standards push is a good thing.
