internetnews.com: Critics Blast Microsoft Despite ODF Support
Pledge
"You'd think that Microsoft's critics would be pleased that the
company plans to add native support for the competing OpenDocument
Format (ODF) to Office 2007 within a year.
"Instead, many went on the attack.
"The software titan said Wednesday that Office 2007 Service Pack
2 (SP2) will let users select ODF 1.1 as the default format for
saving and retrieving files in Office.
"ODF is the major competition for the Microsoft-originated
Office Open XML (OOXML) document interchange format. The company
plans to ship Office 2007 SP2 in the first half of 2009..."
Groklaw: Microsoft Supporting ODF?--Close, But No Cigar
"I wish I could wholeheartedly applaud the Microsoft
announcement about native support for ODF, but I can't. Of course,
it's better to have native support for ODF, no matter what motives
may have influenced Microsoft's announcement, and I'm glad about
that for the sake of end users. But it hasn't happened yet. Was the
word 'vaporware' not coined for Microsoft? In any case, I'm in the
"I will believe it when I see it" category when it comes to
Microsoft. They've earned my caution.
"And I see danger signs for FOSS I'd like to share with you, so
you can consider them. Once again, the problem is software
patents..."