Bonum Certa Men Certa

You Lose, You Lie

Win or lose, Microsoft always claims a win

This you will not believe (unless you have read about it already). After Microsoft was caught lying deliberately in order to confuse voters-to-be, Microsoft lies about an unfavorable outcome as well.

To avoid confusion, let's set a few things straight. OOXML was defeated in the ISO. There is no doubt about this. It's an objective thing. It's a fact. As Andy Updegrove puts it:

I have now seen the official vote tally, and confirmed that the vote failed both tests for approval...


Not only that, but Microsoft has plenty of barriers ahead.

So what next? In short, Microsoft has some 10,000 comments to deal with ahead of he ballot resolution meeting in February.


Be it resolved that Microsoft is in a very uncomfortable situation now. fast-tracking is history. Gone. Microsoft will now need to take the hard route where profound analysis of OOXML is likely to shred it to pieces.

What does Microsoft do? Never underestimate the power of their spin doctors:

Microsoft Loses, Spins Open XML Vote

ISO issued a statement that makes plain what Microsoft tried to spin as a victory.


Watch what Joe Wilcox says.

Apparently, there is more than one way to stuff the ballot box.

In all my years working as a journalist, I've never seen any technology company spin information the way Microsoft did today. The press release on OOXML ratification is a blueprint for spinning semantics, and the stringing together of truths and half-truths to seemingly make the outcome of one event something else altogether.


This is terrible. Look!!! The press is buying it. It gets fed disinformation, which it then passes on.

Microsoft lost its effort to win “fast track” approval of its OOXML (which it calls Open XML) as an international standard, but you wouldn’t know that from reading much of the press coverage.

* Microsoft claims global support for Open XML. * Microsoft reports victory in preliminary ISO ballot. * Microsoft takes big step toward OOXML approval. * Microsoft is seen winning an international standard vote. * Strong global support for Open XML.


Yes, these are the headlines that people are seeing. More people do not read ODF/OOXML blogs. Some of them will get the impression that Microsoft Office (AKA OOXML) is now an international standard. Groklaw says more about thise issue and it even adds its own take on small nations whose voting status suddenly changed. These nations probably received a request from Microsoft to send an E-mail to the ISO at the last minute.

The 11 new P signups, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela, all voted to approve or approve with comments, except for Ecuador, which disapproved, and Trinidad and Tobago which abstained. What about the O members? Almost to a man, they voted to approve. What an amazing coincidence.


The numero uno Microsoft Watcher, Mary Jo Foley, is very unimpressed. She gives reasons to support her opinion that Microsoft deserved to lose.

1. Lobbying is legal. But certain lobbying tactics are not. Microsoft officials admitted that one of the company’s employees behaved inappropriately in Sweden...


Bill Beebe uses the whole OOXML fiasco as a reason for government regulators to get their act together and carry on with antitrust.

No kidding. Microsoft continues to steam-roll the competition, as illustrated by its latest attempt to ram acceptance of OOXML through ISO by the blatantly rigging the vote.


As usual, Rob Weir unleashed another brilliant post which says that Microsoft has mastered the art of hacking the ISO.

It is also interesting to correlate the votes against Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The "old guard" JTC1 membership has an average score of 6.6 (higher is better), while the "rejuvenated" newcomers have an average score of 3.7.

I suppose that no one should be surprised that Microsoft, which has been stuffing committees at the national level throughout this ballot, would also attempt the same at the JTC1 level. From what I have been able to determine, NB's, never having sat in a single JTC1 meeting and never having joined a single JTC1 technical committee, were able join as a P-members, in the last hours of the OOXML ballot, simply by sending an email to ISO. This apparently did not help Microsoft win approval for OOXML. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on other JTC1 activities.


1. First they ignore the opposition 2. Then they use lies to counter the opposition 3. Then they fight the opposition using bribery, vote-stuffing tricks, etc. 4. Then, when they lose, they claim victory (lying again, as in point (2))

Other news headlines worth mentioning:

Recent Techrights' Posts

Report About February Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025) Comes Back From the Dead
Yesterday we wrote about an article in CRN (reporting Microsoft layoffs) being removed without any reasons specified
Links 21/02/2025: Myanmar Scam Centre and Disruptions at USPTO
Links for the day
gbhackers.com is Not Hackers, It's LLM Slop Outputs (Fake 'Articles') That Attack 'True Hackers'
A site called linuxsecurity.com keeps doing this and now we see the slopfarm gbhackers.com doing the same
linuxsecurity.com Continues to Spread Lies or Machine-Generated FUD (Microsoft LLMs Likely the Source) About OpenSSH and Linux
this LLM problem is global
 
Before Trying Censorship by Extortion the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Literally Begged Us to Delete Pages
This is very clearly just a broad campaign of intimidation
Hype Watch: Weeks After Microsoft Disappointed Investors With "Hey Hi" It's Trying Some "Quantum" Hype (Adding Impractical Vapourware to Accompany This Hype and Even LLM Slop in 'News' Clothing)
Remember "metaverse"? What happened to media hype about "blockchain" and "IoT"?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/02/2025: Law of Warming and Cooling, Health, and Devlog
Links for the day
Links 20/02/2025: Microsoft Infosys Layoffs and IRS Layoffs (Good News for Rich Tax Evaders)
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Europe Already Happening or Underway (UK and Spain). They Try Not to Call These "Layoffs".
"CIO" in particular was repeatedly mentioned lately, as was Consulting
People Who Came From Microsoft Demanding Removal of Articles About Them, About Microsoft, and About Microsoft GitHub is "Generous" (According to Them)
Imagine choosing a law firm that borrows money in the same year just to avoid overdraft in the bank!
Possibly a Third Round of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 ("Cloud Solution Architects, Customer Roles"), Report Removed or Censored
This is literally the top story for "microsoft layoffs" right now
Instead of 'DoS Protection' Cloudflare is Allegedly Conducting 'DoS Attacks' on Users of Browsers Other Than Firefox and GAFAM's DRM Sandboxes (Chrome, Safari and Others)
If you value the Web, you will avoid Cloudflare
Mixing Real With Fake in One 'Article' (by "Director of Content, Help Net Security")
From what we can gather, he got machines to generate some slop for him
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/02/2025: FreeDOS abd Botfloods
Links for the day
Microsoft Has "Made the Customer the Product."
it's very likely this comment was made by a Microsoft employee
GNU/Linux and Android Trump Microsoft in Saudi Arabia, Bing Down Since the LLM Hype/Hysteria Began
Microsoft leaves a lot of money on the table
The Interplay Between Free Software and Journalism Based on Truths, Suppressed Facts
Honest people can be transparent. Dishonest, rogue people rely on a lack of it.
FSF Talk: "Free Software Teaching Materials" by Dr. Miriam Bastian
Software Freedom is rooted in philosophy but it's about technical solutions
IBM's CEO Has Become a Stochastic Buzzword-Generating Machine
The current CEO is extremely unpopular
Chicago Transit Authority Has Dumped Twitter (X), As Did Many Others Without Announcing It (Due to Fear of Right-Wing Mobs)
If you don't have an account in Gab, then you probably should not have one in "X", either
How-To Geek Sort of Supersedes MakeUseOf (MUO) for GNU/Linux Coverage
some writers from MakeUseOf (MUO) have been migrated to a sister publication
New Year's Resolutions Scoreboard
The goal is to improve clarity, accessibility, speed, and accuracy
Sites Reporting Crimes and Getting Harassed for Reporting Crimes
you cannot just ignore those who constantly seek to harass
Links 19/02/2025: Science, Hardware, and Digital Restrictions (DRM) Striking Again at eBooks
Links for the day
Zizian, transgender, Google & Debian open source extremist cult phenomena
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 19/02/2025: The Forgotten USB Competitor and Pope's Bilateral Pneumonia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/02/2025: AuraRepo and Offpunk
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Wayne Williams is Making Up for His Workers' Slop Party, LinuxSecurity.com Still Publishes Fake Articles
We must identify and call out the culprits
“Open Source” Really Does Miss the Point, We Can Do Better Than That
We need to reject groups of people who promote Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) and call that "Open Source"
Red Hat's Bluewashing to be Further Completed This Year
Do not wait for some announcement from redhat.com - it's already covered by IBM
Links 19/02/2025: Organisations Quitting Social Control Media, Windows TCO Illustrated Some More
Links for the day
The Free Software Foundation is More Financially Independent From Large Corporations Right Now
Money that comes with strings attached to it is always problematic
The Free Software Foundation's Position on IBM Taking Red Hat Enterprise Linux 'Private' is Articulated Almost 2 Years Late
The Free Software Foundation finally spoke out about this issue
Techrights Publication Topics
One thing we'd like to do more of is Software Freedom advocacy
Springtime Layoffs at IBM (2025) and Statement From IBM European Works Council
It's about cost-cutting, even if such cuts doom the company
Microsoft Paying People Who Harass and SLAPP Techrights, Demanding Censorship
At this point the money trail leads directly to Microsoft
It's Not Even Hidden Anymore: Microsoft is Passing Bribes for Media to Publish Puff Pieces About Itself
GeekWire is paid by Microsoft to publish many puff pieces (even outright lies) about Microsoft
Dr. Andy Farnell on a Death to Efficiency and Cash
Cash is not the same as "digital cash", which isn't even remotely the same
Links 19/02/2025: Political Roundup and Halifax Wants to Dump Twitter ("X")
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/02/2025: Beginning Meditation, Poison as Praxis, and Blogging
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 18, 2025