Sources inside Microsoft are close to revealing the true motivation behind the push for OOXML standardisation.

What has been roundly condemned up to now as a self serving, commercially motivated power play, which has nothing to do with any true desire for openness or interoperability, is in fact a precursor to Microsoft's initial foray into open source.

Microsoft plans first to put its Office 2007 productivity suite into the public domain and to sponsor a spin-off version which will be available free, called World Office. This will be seen by some as a counter to Sun's Star Office / Open Office but should benefit everyone as it will provide fertile ground in which a whole new developer ecosystem can take root.

In turn, this will create opportunities for the rival OOXML and ODF standards to converge and for all productivity applications fully to support both in future, which can only be a very good thing.

Microsoft is also reported to be considering opening up some of its legacy OS code though Vista will, for now, remain largely closed.

Category: Misc
Technorati: Microsoft

1. Dave Harris01/04/2008 12:23:47
Homepage: http://www.wavysworld.com

"Breaking with a long and unhappy tradition of failed windups, there will be no April fool gag here this year."

Yeah, right

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2. Simon Scullion01/04/2008 16:39:24
Homepage: http://simonscullion.com/

@Dave, LOL!!

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