Microsoft to Support ODF via Plug-In

Apache4857 writes "It appears that Microsoft has finally caved. BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft is sponsoring an open source project to enable conversion between Open XML in Office 2007 and OpenDocument formats. The project, hosted on Sourceforge.net, made its initial release today. The Word 2007 conversion utility is expected to ship ship by the end of 2006, and similarly conversion utilities for Excel and PowerPoint are expected early next year." See the announcement in Brian Jones' blog (Jones is the Microsoft program manager responsible for Office file formats).

Comments

Again, I don't see what all the fuss is about

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I still don't understand the need for an open document format, except to make OSS happy.

For decades, every application that has had some competitive version has been able to support each other's file types relatively painlessly. The only point of contention is when one version has features the other does not support. This is where document support becomes spotty.

But, with OSS pretty much duplicating whatever they like from retail software, granted with a few novel innovations, its pretty much becomes a case of we all have the same features, lets make a document format that works for everything.

Again, I don't see how or why this needs to be. Microsoft is offering an "open" document format, that is, a format that any 3rd party competitor can read, interpret, and view within their application. OSS has created their own open document format, which Microsoft and other 3rd parties can read, interpret, and view. The key is now you don't need to reverse engineer or hack support for a file, whether it's Microsoft or OSS software, both are offering a document format you can use or support at will.

I really don't see a need that every application needs to support ONE document format. I don't think it is possible, because eventually, some company will come out with a feature that won't be supported by someone else's product, and it just become kludge to try and say that this document format will support FUTURE features without getting into the mess of having every vendor discuss and talk about changing its version.

An open document format will stifle innovation because every vendor will be reluctant to add new features. Whenever something is designed by committee, the design flounders and fails.

So, as long as your a company that has embraced the "open" in open document, and create a document version and tell everyone how to access its data, that is all the industry needs.

OPEN is not synonymous with ONE, it does not mean there needs to be only ONE document format. It just means that your playing fair with competitors and offering a document format, and the necessary SDK or documentation to read and interpret that document format.

At the end of all this, you will still end up having to support DOC, DOCX, PDF, ODF, XML, etc, etc, etc. There is no point to this argument, it is moot.

Its just another Microsoft vs OSS garbage inflammatory troll bait article that we waste far too much time discussing and worrying about. In the end, it won't matter one hill of beans whether or not Microsoft or the OSS format wins, there WILL BE TWO FORMATS anyways. If your software vendor, start supporting both in your software now.