Linked by Adam S on Wed 21st May 2008 19:28 UTC
According to BetaNews, Microsoft has announced that they will support OpenDocument (ODF) and PDF in Office 2007 SP2. This comes as a major victory not only for OpenOffice.org and its offshoots, but also for open source in general. Microsoft is planning on making Office 2007 SP2 available in the first half of 2009. 
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Member since:
2005-07-06
However, Adobe threatened to file antitrust actions against MS if they didn't remove it, so MS did.
I wonder what has changed since then?
Not too sure; maybe Adobe realising that if they didn't step down from their position, Microsoft would push XPS hard. Right now, XPS (when compared to OOXML) is alot more open and well documented; it also isn't laced with legal gotchas, so it should make implementing it and distributing binaries a non-issue.
I have to admit though, although I do not like Microsoft all that much, I do have a deep seated hatred of Adobe due their arrogance towards non-Windows based operating systems - and their incessant whining over Microsoft's monopoly but ignoring the fact that through their failure to support alternative platforms, they are in effect propping up the Microsoft monopoly on the desktop (and all the technologies attached to it (aka file formats, audio and video formats etc.)).
As for how this helps OpenOffice.org - I personally think it'll have negligible impact on it. The problem is not only file formats but getting the end user to realise that the features Microsoft adds to Office, such as Sharepoint, have negligible impact in terms of improved productivity and only, in the end, are tools to making Office more entrenched in the organisation. People moving to things, not because there is a quantifiable reason to back it up, but 'because....' - anyone have children here? ever remember asking a child why they want something bought for them and the only reason they can come up with is 'because....' - well, Office falls into the same category of that.
Edited 2008-05-21 20:37 UTC