Swedish OpenXML Vote Declared Invalid
The Swedish Institute for Standards (SiS) has just released a press statement declaring its vote for Microsoft's OpenXML format invalid.
In its statement SiS revoked its controversial vote from earlier this week, and announced that Sweden will not be taking an official stand on OpenXML. The official reason stated by the institute was that one of the voting parties had cast two votes, although each enterprise is allowed one vote only under SiS rules.
The Swedish Association for Free Information Structure (Förening för en fri informationsinfrastruktur) FFII had accused Microsoft of manipulating the vote via its partner companies. In a blog entry, Jason Matusow, who is responsible for intellectual property and interoperability at Microsoft, has since admitted that Microsoft had contacted business partners in Sweden and asked them to support OpenXML, and there are media reports that Microsoft promised incentives. According to Microsoft manager Tom Robertson the incentives were immediately withdrawn after they became known as "inconsistent with corporate policy".
At present, ISO is collecting votes from national committees on recognizing Microsoft's XML format as an ISO standard. Standardization institutes can cast their votes until September 2. As Sweden will probably be unable to keep the deadline in the wake of the irregularities, SiS has decided to abstain.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.