The ODF Alliance today greeted with skepticism Microsoft’s announcement of its intention to include support for the OpenDocument Format in the first half of 2009. “The proof will be whether and when Microsoft’s promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own format. Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases,” said Marino Marcich.
Office 2007 won’t support ISO’s OOXML. Customers wanting an ISO-conformant Office Open XML (OOXML) in Microsoft Office 2007, it will not happen. They will have to wait until Office 14 ships and as of now there is no time line.
Clearly this announcement reflects the strong demand from customers worldwide, especially governments, for access to ODF, a truly universal, open standards-based file format,” Marcich continued. “Microsoft continues to answer with a steady stream of promises. However, until Microsoft enables Office users to create and save in ODF by default as easily and fully as in Microsoft’s own formats, governments will continue to adopt a ‘buyer beware’ attitude. Because Microsoft has a history of broken promises, no one should celebrate this news until we see what is actually done and how quickly it is put in place.”
Marcich advised caution for now, noting that Microsoft announced its intention two years ago to implement “support” for ODF for via a third-party translator that is still in beta (under development) and will not be completed until the first half of 2009. There was limited functionality available via the converters and they were poorly integrated into the overall Microsoft user interface, as compared with the integration and functionality Microsoft offers for its own OOXML format.
“What governments want is direct, internal support for ODF in Microsoft Office. Governments do not want to waste time waiting for translators to load or re-engineering default-save functions for their workforce,” added Marcich. “If Microsoft actually follows through with this most recent promise, it will reinforce the global market-led demand by customers, particularly governments, seeking open standards based interoperability through ODF.”
Despite these concerns, Marcich cited the progress reflected in today’s announcement. “The era of public information being locked in a closed format requiring the public to purchase a particular brand of software in order to secure access is rapidly coming to a close, thanks in no small measure to the courage and foresight of leading ODF-supporting governments that have been willing to take a stand on this important public-policy issue,” concluded Marcich. “Today’s announcement validates the ODF Alliance’s mission and indicates the growing demand and support for ODF among governments. If it acts on its promise, Microsoft will join a list of some two dozen vendors that have implemented support for ODF in their products.”
Posted by FA Editors at 7:27 PM PDT
