Here is a nice new article that shows the nature of the monoculture called OOXML.

How well is ODF and OOXML supported in different languages?

I started off by choosing six common languages used by application and Web developers, then I went and looked for what libraries are available for each document format:

Language	ODF	OOXML
Python	Yes	No
Perl	Yes	No
Ruby	Yes	No
PHP	Yes	Started
Java	Yes	Started
Microsoft C#	Yes	Yes

This is hardly surprising and IBM ought to be very careful with that C#/Mono trap.

A few days ago, memories from Hungary came back to light in Groklaw.

Do you remember the August meeting of the Technical Committee in Hungary over whether to approve MS OOXML as a standard? It was one of the places where the scandal-rocked ISO process bubbled up and over into headlines. In that country, the issue was whether proper procedures were followed in the voting. There is now a report and transcript of the meeting [PDF] in Hungarian, of course, 27 pages long, which is now made public.

We mentioned OOXML in Hungary several times before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. This was one among many other disturbing scenarios which showed the truly fradulent nature of Microsoft and its ability to manipulate people/governments.

It is safe to predict that the aggressive and unethical behavior will culminate early next year, but it has already begun (and been spotted) in Germany and Portugal. ⬆