LinuxQuestions.org - LXer: Microsoft Supports Rival Office Document Format

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LXer: Microsoft Supports Rival Office Document Format

Published at LXer:

Microsoft is supporting a chief rival to its Office suite for approval to a national standards board. [Jaw drops... - dcparris]

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Quote:

"We have listened to our customers, and they have told us they want choice, they want interoperability, they want innovation," said Tom Robertson, general manager for Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft, in a press release. "The American National Standards list does not include a number of document format standards in wide use today, such as PDF, .DOC, RTF and HTML. The inclusion of ODF is just the beginning; we expect the list will grow in the future to reflect the choices customers already have in today's marketplace."

The last sentence in that statement is key. Microsoft's embrace and extend policy is in full swing here and they will not stop until there are so many "standards" that the idea of a document standard becomes meaningless gobbledygook.

Yes, Microsoft loves to accept and then later "improve" standards so they bring the unknowing back under their control. (For those who do not know why Microsoft would do this, check out this article.) Anyway, it's a start. At least for a while, everyone is at least pretending to be on the same page.