Microsoft’s attempt to abuse the international standards process has gotten even more bizarre.

Beyond the fact that this standard sucks, with tags for things like color varying from application to application in the suite, the ISO is now delaying an announcement on the vote.

It could be that they don’t want to make an announcement on April fools day, but more likely it is the fact that the legitimacy of various national votes on this have been disputed, in particular Norway, which voted 4:1 against accepting the standard, but was recorded as voting for the standard.

To the degree that I understand such things, which is limited, this standard sucks, which is part of the problem. Additionally, there is a very real issue that Microsoft will use IP laws, and “undocumented features” to leverage their control of the office suite.

Microsoft’s “promises” to allow OOXML be used by all are cut out of very thin cloth.