"But that isn't the whole story. Judged by its
technical merits, or common standards of interoperability and
usefulness, OOXML is a dead duck. But Microsoft is first and
foremost a successful marketing organisation with a long reach into
government circles. For instance, in January 2003 the British
government chose to make Bill Gates, who is neither a citizen nor a
resident of the United Kingdom, an honorary Knight Commander of the
Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his
"services to global enterprise" and his "outstanding contribution
to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in
the UK" - despite the fact that at that time Microsoft was the
subject of a long-standing investigation by the European Commission
for monopolistic and anti-competitive practices, and had already
been found guilty of similar practices in the US."