Open XML has not become an international standard

Microsoft failed in the first vote to ratify Office Open XML format standards to become an international one.

According to the voting results published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on September 4, the standard format of Microsoft only won 53% of the votes, not enough 2/3 of the votes as prescribed to become Global standard format for global.

It is expected that ISO will conduct a meeting again to discuss this issue in February next year. Microsoft still has the opportunity to win more necessary votes.

' We fully believe in the early 2008 Office Open XML format will become an international standard ,' said Tom Robertson, Microsoft 's director of compatibility and standards.

For those who support the Open Document Format (ODF) standard, the above voting results are considered a great victory because in their view, Microsoft's format is not an open standard. It was just a rope that helped Microsoft bind users even more.

Meanwhile, Microsoft announced that the standard Open XML format has more advanced technological features than the ODF standard. These features are described in great detail in a brochure of up to 6,000 pages in length.

The world's No. 1 software company said that standardizing Open XML will allow many companies to develop products that are compatible with Microsoft standards, creating broad compatibility and easily exchanging information.

The ODF coalition in a statement issued after the voting results were published confirms that such a large number of votes that do not support Open XML are a clear proof that the current community is still very skeptical about the Similarity and openness of Open XML.

Office Open XML is currently the default format of the latest version of Microsoft Office 2007 office suite. ODF is a free open format standard backed by two big names, IBM and Sun Microsystem. This standard is applied in OpenOffice.org.

Why does Microsoft have to fight?

Analysts say that Microsoft has spent a lot of time trying to get Open XML to become an international standard because it wants an official ISO approval to pave the way for them to be sold. Office application suite for large businesses and the public sector.

Not only that, the struggle can also bring Microsoft 'fame', which is struggling to promote widespread cooperation with businesses and countries around the world. Most importantly, Microsoft wants this "reputation" to reach the ears of the European Commission - an organization that still sees Microsoft as an incompetent competitor.

So we can absolutely say whether or not early next year ISO approved Open XML to become an international standard, Microsoft will still be the winner. The number one software company in the world has achieved the most important goal ' we have struggled to fight for the broader compatibility of our products but have been rejected '.

Hoang Dung