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Now Open Source Is the Proprietary One?

Microsoft could have used OpenDoc, the file format for OpenOffice and other apps, as the file format for Office 2007, but that just wouldn't be right. Microsoft wants it own file formats for market control, and so that the file formats can handle anything Microsoft apps need them to.

And so it is that we have OpenOffice XML, a Microsoft format that others can use, along with an open source translator that can convert Microsoft files into OpenDoc.

I guess that makes Microsoft open -- open enough to criticize OpenDoc backer IBM for being closed!

In an open letter, Redmond accuses Armonk of trying to hold back Open XML in favor of OpenDoc. Can't all monopolies just get along?

Posted by Doug Barney on February 20, 2007


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