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Microsoft Opening Office XML Formats

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-does-that-mean-exactly dept.

sriram_2001 writes "Microsoft has opened up the XML schemas for Office 2003, thereby silencing a lot of criticism. This could potentially open the way for several government contracts as certain governments have made open standards (and not open-source) a pre-requisite. In their FAQ, Microsoft not only says that open source developers can distribute software built using them, but also that they'll make all future updates available using the same terms. Here is the Official Microsoft Site and CRN and Techworld have stories about it."

3 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. GPL compatible? by John_Sauter · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It's hard to tell, but I suspect that Microsoft's license is not compatible with the GPL. Consider the following question and answer:


    Q. Can I distribute a licensed program under an open source software license?


    A. Yes. There are many open source licenses available in the developer community. One useful place to review the various licenses that have been approved by the open source community is at Open Source Initiative.



    The terms and conditions of these licenses differ in material respects. We believe you can distribute your program under many open source software licenses so long as you include the notices described in the licenses for the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. On the other hand, some open source licenses may include specific constraints or restrictions that might preclude development under the Office 2003 XML Reference Schema licenses. You should check with your legal counsel if you have questions about a particular open source software license.

    Does anybody have any insight on whether or not I could include Microsoft's XML schemas into an existing program which is licensed to me under the GPL, and redistribute the result under the GPL?
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

  2. Before all of the Microsoft bashing begins... by Villageidiot9390 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is something that many of us in the Slashdot community have wanted for a very long time. It almost seems as if Microsoft is starting to bend to market pressure. Maybe not as much or as quickly as some of us would like, but everything needs to start somewhere.

    On that note, the only one thing that I would worry about is how Microsoft plans to license thier XML schema.

    So let's keep on developing all of those great open source applications, and keep the heat on the competition in the software market!

  3. But Office XML Formats are NOT the standard... by rhadc · · Score: 1, Redundant

    As far as I know, Microsoft's binary document formats are the standard, not it's XML formats. The binary formats are the ones that can be read by Office 97 forward, and those are the ones by which the world of office productivity is still ruled. These open formats might be nice to have, and they might even shed light on how the binary formats work, but they are not all that is needed to open the door to proper open source implementation of the standards.

    rhadc