Reports: OpenXML ISO approved

I could cry.

This is what happens when people believe the bully when he says "I've reformed, come and play with me".

This is what Microsoft do - they subvert communities. They throw cash about until they find someone who's beliefs are less important than their bank balance. They rig votes, they bribe and corrupt all they touch. And then they swan off into the sunset with a chuckle knowing they've just re-established the monopoly for another year or five. Who cares if they had to destroy an international organisation in the process?

And if they can divide the community in the process - by corrupting people and their standards, then so much the better.

A few people stated quite clearly that this is roughly what would happen. And most of those people were shot down in flames. We got suckered, or rather, all those muppets who believed "this time it will be different" got suckered. It's the same as the violent spouse standing over the bruised and weeping partner swearing "it won't happen again - I've learned my lesson". It will happen again and they haven't learned their lesson.

Just one little catch: Nobody has it carved in stone that they must use ISO-approved standards.

Microsoft may have destroyed ISO's credibility, but AFAIK no nation is prevented from forbidding a standard with such questionable ISO status.

And who knows? This may lead to a competitor to the ISO, with more explicit rules about voting and dealing with irregularities.

@tracyanne:

Don't cry yet. The appeals are already coming in, with Norway protesting its own vote. Microsoft may yet reach for the trophy, only to grasp gold-plated mud.

Strikes me that the votes on this ISO standard have been as rigged as the Zimbabwean election!