The average user probably hasn't even heard of Open Document Format (ODF) or Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML). But to factions in the free software community, these formats for common office files such as text documents and spreadsheets are the poles on which a violent controversy centers. With both formats candidates for being the ISO standard that becomes the norm for interoperability between office suites, emotions were already running high.

However, in the last six weeks, this issue has been sidetracked by a debate about whether the GNOME Foundation, which oversees development of the popular desktop, has betrayed or assisted the community by being involved with the development of OOXML at all.

The tragedy of this controversy is not just that it is divisive, but that each side has a point. Yet the arguments are based on such utterly different principles that the two sides have almost no chance of finding common ground. In fact, the argument has become so polarized that last week Sam Varghese characterized my suggestion that both sides believed that they were acting for the good of the community as an "insane claim."

Nor do any of the principals seem interested in ending the division. I think one could be found, if both sides could back down a bit, but even to make this suggestion is to take flack from both sides.

How it started