Microsoft Office 2007 to Support ODF - But Not OOXML

Andy Updegrove writes "About two hours ago, Microsoft announced that it will update Office 2007 to natively support ODF 1.1, but not to implement its own OOXML format. Not until Office 14 is released (no date given so far for that) will anyone be able to buy an OOXML ISO-compliant version. Why will Microsoft do this after so many years of refusal? Perhaps because the only way it can deliver a product to government customers that meets an ISO/IEC document format standard is by finally taking the plunge, and supporting 'that other format.' Still, many questions remain, such as when this upgrade will actually be released, how good a job it will do, and whether the API Microsoft has said it will make available to permit developers to supply 'save to ODF' default plugins will be supported by a patent non-assertion promise allowing implementations under the GPL (the upgrade supplied by Microsoft will not allow ODF as the default setting)."

Comments

Re:Doesn't even need to be patent encumbered

[samkass]

a la the farce with Java

I'm sorry? Sun is making excellent strides toward getting Java fully open-source. They greatly diminished their reliance on libraries they'd licensed over the years with each OpenJDK release, to the point where most Java code out there doesn't need the stuff that's left encumbered. Thus Fedora and friends have been able to put a near-complete OpenJDK in their distro.

At this point, actually, Java is open-source to the point where as a commercial entity it's a little frustrating to use some of the new stuff. For example, the new scenegraph in JavaFX is GPL. No LGPL, no classpath exception-- if you use it and want to redistribute your app, you GPL anything that touches it.