Here's the scoop from the Reuters
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) has won enough support to have its OOXML text and spreadsheet format certified as a global industry standard, Microsoft and the OpenDoc Society, which had opposed approval, said on Tuesday.
The ISO approved XML as an international standard after originally denying that status back in September of 2007. A lot of Open Standards-ers are railing against the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) saying that having multiple international standards defeats the purpose of having standards in the first place. Some people (myself included) don't really see a problem. If anything, MS' format should probably be "the" standard just by virtue of the fact that so many people use it vs any one other format. They even make MS Office for Macs and Open Office makes a point on its website of mentioning that it can read and save in MS formats.
Is there anyone out there who has a major problem with an already widely-used format being approved as an international standard?
Also, I wonder what Microsoft did to change the ISO's mind.
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