OpenMetrics, a standard for exposing metrics data, is influenced by Prometheus, which revolutionized cloud-native metric monitoring by offering a more modern, efficient alternative to older protocols like SNMP. At KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU, Grafana Labs' Richard Hartmann and Robust Perception's Brian Brazil discussed OpenMetrics' evolution, its adoption challenges, and its similarities to Prometheus, particularly in format. They emphasized the importance of the _total suffix for counters and the introduction of exemplars to link metrics with traces. Despite political hurdles, major companies such as Google and Uber are interested in adopting OpenMetrics, which aims to maintain a focused approach akin to the Unix philosophy. OpenMetrics largely retains the Prometheus text format while introducing improvements like higher resolution timestamps and the reintroduction of protobuf. It has garnered support from various vendors, including DataDog and OpenTelemetry, and aims for industry standardization with ongoing efforts to formalize specifications and compliance testing. Hartmann remains optimistic about OpenMetrics' potential to standardize Prometheus' capabilities across the broader ecosystem, with future applications likely to integrate metrics, logs, and traces seamlessly.