Critics Blast Microsoft Despite ODF Support Pledge - Page 2

Microsoft, however, frames its latest moves as part of fulfilling a company-wide interoperability initiative that it announced in February. The move also satisfies assurances it made when OOXML -- now known by its ISO-assigned designation of "IS29500" -- was being considered for standards status.

While OOXML started out as the default file format for Office 2007, it's since become inoperable with Office thanks to a myriad of changes made during the ISO standards process.

To pass muster with the 87 nations that participated in the ISO standards-setting process, Microsoft and European standards body Ecma International made a number of revisions to OOXML.

While Office 2007 is no longer compliant with the newly minted standard, the company said last month it fully intends to sync Office back up with IS29500.

The rival OpenDocument Format, meanwhile, originated from the file formats of the open source OpenOffice.org productivity applications suite and its commercial sibling, Sun's StarOffice. The format became an ISO standard in 2006.

ODF supporters fought tooth and nail to derail Microsoft's attempts to have Office 2007's native file formats also ratified as an ISO standard.

They contended that a second standard for document interchange was unneeded, and that Microsoft intended to undermine ODF, confuse the marketplace and supplant that format with its own, proprietary, solution.

Despite the debate, OOXML/IS29500 became ratified as a second document interchange standard in late March.

Asking for more trouble?

In addition to pledging to support ODF and to fix OOXML compliance, Microsoft also is making still further promises relating to interoperability.

For one thing, the company is also joining the technical committees that help guide ODF. Microsoft said it would join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee, which is working on the next version of ODF.

It also said it would join the ISO committee set up to maintain ODF. Microsoft is already a member of the ISO technical committee that oversees IS29500.

Besides working with ODF, though, Microsoft also announced that Office 2007 SP2 will add native support for its XML Paper Specification (XPS), as well as XPS's competitors, Adobe's (NASDAQ: ADBE) Portable Document Format (PDF) version 1.5 and PDF/A.

Needless to say, all eyes will be on Microsoft as it fulfills its interoperability promises -- or fails to.

After "all the rhetoric on both sides over the approval of OOXML, it's critical for Microsoft to deliver on their promises to work in this world of open standards," Charles King, principal analyst at researcher Pund-IT, told InternetNews.com.

"Given the amount of bad blood out there, Microsoft is going to be under the microscope," King added.

Competitive pressures aren't the only problems that Microsoft faces regarding file formats.

For instance, Microsoft is still awaiting the results of two probes by the European Commission (EC) -- one specifically regarding whether or not OOXML/IS29500 is adequately "open" for competitors.

Additionally, published reports have suggested that the EC is also investigating whether Microsoft strongarmed ISO bodies into approving OOXML.

David Needle, InternetNews.com's West Coast bureau chief, contributed to this report.