Official: OOXML approved as international standard
Microsoft slips into robe, smokes fat cigar
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The ISO/IEC confirmed this morning that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) has been approved as an international standard, leaving the Open Document Format (ODF) lobby raging about alleged voting irregularities.
The International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) finally posted a press release today officially confirming what was already widely known, that Microsoft bagged 75 per cent of the votes, enough to see its Office 2007 file format given the thumbs-up.
The decision follows February's ballot resolution meeting in Geneva, where delegates from 87 national bodies were given the opportunity to review comments and change their stance after voting to reject OOXML last autumn. It will come as a massive blow to advocates of ISO-approved ODF.
Many critics of OOXML have argued against the specification because Microsoft has failed to build in native support for ODF files, which are used by the likes of IBM, Sun Microsystems and others, into its latest Office suite. Others, meanwhile, have complained that approving OOXML as a standard would see Redmond tighten its monopolistic stranglehold on the software industry.
The ISO, which delayed its announcement by a day – presumably to review complaints over alleged voting misdeeds – said: “The issues addressed and revised have resulted in sufficient national bodies withdrawing their earlier disapproval votes, or transforming them into positive votes, so that the criteria for approval of the document as an International Standard have now been met.
“Subject to there being no formal appeals from ISO/IEC national bodies in the next two months, the International Standard will accordingly proceed to publication.”
Now that Microsoft has secured victory with the format, the firm will have an equal footing with its rivals, and will doubtless be gunning for OOXML to take supremacy on the global stage as the file format of choice among the biz community.
Yesterday, when documents first appeared on the internet that revealed the ISO’s result, Microsoft execs felt confident enough to put out a statement.
The company's interoperability and standards general manager Tom Robertson said: “This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard.”
However, the whole process to fast-track OOXML through the ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has been marred by accusations of voting irregularities which are still loudly being voiced in some quarters.
National standard bodies in Norway and elsewhere could yet try and crash the party by mounting formal appeals in an attempt to reverse the ISO's approval of OOXML. ®
COMMENTS
Have you heard the sage advice
There are two things in the world you never want to see being created:
chicken soup and standards.
Now you've seen a standard being created. Do you have the stomach to see the other one?
Apple Vs MS
Whether or not Apple does the same nasty things as Microsoft, is rather irrelevant, because Apple is a niche product which is not something that is necessary to use.
MS is an Ogliopol, or Monopol, depending on your point of view, which means they need to play by a different set of rules than Apple, Apple is absolutely allowed to bundle, tie, bind, and what not, their customers, because they do not control the market, and is only a minor player (relative), that means that what they do is legal, but when you control the markedet like Microsoft does, then you have to playe "Nice" because you are now able to levie force on the market, and force the market to move as they want.
So unfortunately for Microsoft, being the controlling player, with around 90% of the market, they are subject to the monopoly laws, which means they must play nice and not abuse their position (something they've been charged with in several cases, and lost quite a few court cases over), Apple is not in such a dominant position (though their I-Pod is heading that way), and therefore is not subject to the limitations nor restrictions imposed on monopolies.
If you want to compare buisness practises of Microsoft to other companies you need to find someone who is a monopoly and compare them, comparing actions of random companies to Microsoft is not relevant because very few companies have the total market domination that Microsoft has. Coca Cola does not own the soft drink market, and has real competitors, which is why they are not under monopoly restrictions,
About Microsoft complying with changes required by ISO, from the fragments I've read about, some of the compliance seems to be more like "yes we are aware of it, but we are not going to implement the change" (specifically relating to the CEILING function), which really doesn't indicate compliance, and yet Denmark who apparently received some replies like that, changed their vote to a yes, even though the standards forum indicated a no - something strange is happening in this case.
MS Orifice and it's corrupt standards
MS Orifice 2007? OOXML?
I wouldn't use it, if it was pirated and burned on a CD for me.
In fact I am quite fond of Ubuntu Linux and Open Office.
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