CadCrazy
in search of myself
WTF : OOXML Almost An ISO Standard!
Good news or bad news, depends on which side you are on.
The International Standards Organization (ISO) will announce the results tomorrow -- 2 April 2008; but as the analysis/tracking of the votes show, Microsoft seemed to have won this battle. With the muscular power that Microsoft has, it wasn't impossible. What was impossible was the initial defeat in the first round held in the month of September last year.
According to the sites which are tracking the votes, so far:
Yes votes: 22
No votes: 10
Abstain votes: 9
India has given No to OOXML, but those members of the BIS Committee who voted 'Yes', seemed to have no other option owing to their close ties with Microsoft -- defy and lose all the contracts. It's simple.
But, what's surprising was even on the last day, i.e. yesterday, two major developments took place -- France shifted from disapprove to abstain whereas Norway filed a protest with ISO relating to its own vote; they are asking it to be suspended until an internal investigation is concluded over shifting NO to Yes!
Just one day ago, on 30 March 2008, Australia and Malaysia stayed as abstain. What's surprising is Linus Torvald's home country Finland has also approved OOXML format.
Czech Republic, Denmark, Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland are the countries which changed courts from No to Yes in favour of OOXML, whereas only Venezuela took U-turn from Yes to No!
India, including Chile, Germany, Poland, South Africa, USA, Canada and New Zealand have maintained their NO!
The crux of the matter is once OOXML is approved as an ISO standard, Microsoft will have no obligation to implement ODF, the competitor. They will keep ruling the world in the manner they have been doing since ages. That was why while we had so many choices for almost everything in this world -- from cars to mobile phones, there was NO choice available in the realm of operating systems for an ordinary user until GNU/Linux entered the arena.
It must be noted that every NO to abstain is a gain for Microsoft, and every YES to abstain is a loss.
Microsoft will have its way, and its market will continue to grow.
Source
Good news or bad news, depends on which side you are on.
The International Standards Organization (ISO) will announce the results tomorrow -- 2 April 2008; but as the analysis/tracking of the votes show, Microsoft seemed to have won this battle. With the muscular power that Microsoft has, it wasn't impossible. What was impossible was the initial defeat in the first round held in the month of September last year.
According to the sites which are tracking the votes, so far:
Yes votes: 22
No votes: 10
Abstain votes: 9
India has given No to OOXML, but those members of the BIS Committee who voted 'Yes', seemed to have no other option owing to their close ties with Microsoft -- defy and lose all the contracts. It's simple.
But, what's surprising was even on the last day, i.e. yesterday, two major developments took place -- France shifted from disapprove to abstain whereas Norway filed a protest with ISO relating to its own vote; they are asking it to be suspended until an internal investigation is concluded over shifting NO to Yes!
Just one day ago, on 30 March 2008, Australia and Malaysia stayed as abstain. What's surprising is Linus Torvald's home country Finland has also approved OOXML format.
Czech Republic, Denmark, Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland are the countries which changed courts from No to Yes in favour of OOXML, whereas only Venezuela took U-turn from Yes to No!
India, including Chile, Germany, Poland, South Africa, USA, Canada and New Zealand have maintained their NO!
The crux of the matter is once OOXML is approved as an ISO standard, Microsoft will have no obligation to implement ODF, the competitor. They will keep ruling the world in the manner they have been doing since ages. That was why while we had so many choices for almost everything in this world -- from cars to mobile phones, there was NO choice available in the realm of operating systems for an ordinary user until GNU/Linux entered the arena.
It must be noted that every NO to abstain is a gain for Microsoft, and every YES to abstain is a loss.
Microsoft will have its way, and its market will continue to grow.
Source