India has voted to NO to OOXML.
That was expected. What is surprising is how the battle is being fought. Here's one insider's account of how the votes played out and the after effects.
Reading between the lines, there seems to be a lot of quid pro quo and none of the Indian IT players come out in a better light. Of course, one is well within their rights to question the motives of the blogger too who gave his perspective of things.
However coloured the views might have been, IF there were technical demerits to the standard, then it really is a good idea to throw it out.
Microsoft has only itself to blame on this vote; none of the competition is going to help it along. Clearly, the more the NO votes, the bigger the embarrassment and consequent bureaucratic revisions and time that OOXML is going to get bogged into. The competition is also going to spread a good amount of FUD about it, right or wrong. Questions on patents, whether it is truly open, the NO votes from the academic establishments are ripe for talking points attack.
And I still don't understand why there is a need for another document standard when the ODF (Open Document Format) exists and there is ISO approval for the same.
