“The OpenDocument Format (ODF) just keeps on getting stronger.
It is now an official ISO standard; there are numerous applications
that support it, with varying degrees of fidelity, including
Google’s online word processor and spreadsheet; there’s an official
Microsoft-funded plug-in for Microsoft Office that allows it to
open and save ODF files, and a program that converts between ODF
and the Chinese UOF XML office format; and the ODF community has
largely sorted out issues of accessibility that threatened to
de-rail its adoption by Massachusetts.“At the same time, Microsoft is clearly beginning to feel the
pressure. Its attempts to ram its own XML format through as an ISO
standard, and the unseemly haste with which its 6000 pages of
documentation were approved as an ECMA standard, are an indication
that it is playing catch-up in this sector, even if it remains the
dominant player…”