“Microsoft will on Tuesday announce it is opening up access to its Office file formats to competitors, as part of a move to ensure the software giant does not lose lucrative government markets for its Office software,” Maija Palmer reports for The Financial Times. “The move will ensure that computer users will be able to open and work with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents without having to buy the Microsoft Office software to do so.”
“The move is separate to Microsoft’s ongoing antitrust case with the European Commission, but comes in response to another concern raised by the European Union executive body. Had Microsoft failed to act on the issue, the Commission could have stopped using Microsoft Office for the creation of public documents and advised all 25 national governments in the European Union to do the same,’ Palmer reports. “Governments, especially in Europe and Asia, have been among the most significant adopters of open-source software such as Linux and Sun’s OpenOffice, a direct competitor to Microsoft Office.”
“Microsoft will submit its Office file formats to Ecma International, the standards body, which will develop the documentation and make it available to the industry. The move is being supported by a number of organisations including Apple Computer, Barclays Capital, BP, Intel and Toshiba,” Palmer reports. “Within about 18 months, customers, competitors and developers should be able to download detailed files from Ecma on how to create a Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or Excel document.”
Full article here.
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No word on MS also releasing any patents they might hold related to Word file formats into the public domain. I wouldn’t touch this with a 10 foot pole.
That is all that is needed for an Office Alternative on the Mac. True 100% compatibility.
Hopefully, Apple will release something in Jan to take advantage of this.
Next we need a true alternative to Exchange.
But Apple and MS have signed a cross patent agreement.
is this for real?
Apple should get in bed with openoffice RIGHT NOW, and help add this new compatibilty to it when is becomes available. and give it back to the community.
Will there finally be a standard document format that is universal? Will there come a day when I can send ANYONE an “OpenWord” file and they WILL be able to read/write it?
My spider sense is tingling….something is not right.
Microsoft playing nice with the standards boards?? Hell, next thing you’re going to tell me is that Sony is gonna stop pushing proprietary media formats down our throats(i.e. betamax, minidisc, memorystick, etc.)…
if this is true, then maybe pages will soon be able to save in the word format — that’s all I need to quit using office:mac. Ironic that they’re going to open up their formats to encourage users to keep only using their programs, but I guess they don’t have a choice.
The one thing that is clear is that we, as consumers, will benefit if this thing actually happens.
After RTFA, I think I know what MS is up to….
The opening of the Office format isnt wholesale. They will release Word/Excel/Powerpoint reader/writers….
Like the free CAD drawing readers you see available. You will be able to read the file and even make simple edits, but in order to alter it to any REAL extent you will need the full blown version of office.
Am I even close here?
In related news, the Microsoft Public Relations office has noted that the opening up of access to its Office file formats to competitors will be closely scrutinized by its new upper management team known internally as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The white horse and its rider have claimed dibs on the PowerPoint format.
MW: like, as in like, totally
Wow, hard day for M$. This is their bread-and-butter software suite, and to make it open source they must be feeling the pressure pretty bad.
Tee hee!
I think MS is wise in doing this – it avoids having the format declared as public domain property.
Pages does not save a document as .doc, but can easily export the document to a .doc format. There may be some problem with highly formatted documents, but it’s already simple for most docs. All Apple needs to do is fill out the iWork suite so it can fully replace AppleWorks. I think that will be done by the time the Mactels hit the market.
no one said ANYTHING about open source……lets calm down here
about time they did something
This is good news. I’m glad MS is doing this. It is better for the industry. It also makes Apple less vulnerable to getting people to swtich if MS every decides to drop Office for the mac.
this could be a huge opening for a “suite” update of iWork
Also, in other news, recent weather reports from Hades predict that temperatures are rapidly dropping and may soon reach the freezing point.
This is good for the industry, is probably designed to pro-actively head off some anti-trust issues, is fabulous news from the “Microsoft is the Evil Empire” viewpoint, but man is this the dumbest business move in history.
A decade from now people will be asking Micro-who?
is this not the same at the moment as the flash file format? ie macromedia upgrade the specs of the player, and they always have the head-start on the competition, ie the development of action-script etc.
Doesnt there need to be a governing organisation that ensures standards compliance, like W3C ?
thats the problem theyre not saying its now open-source, theyre just saying basically that ‘due to the very big possibility that we may lose the whole of the UN goverment oraganisations business, were going to allow companies to open and save in .doc format.
But i admit its still a very good thing to happen.
Typically Microsoft makes these great big announcements and tries to gather some political capital or overall goodwill. Then they immediately spend it before they act, then when they do act they do such a hodgepodge job of it that they prevent it from actually taking place.
They are sneaky that way. Bastards.
I don’t know why some of you want to get rid of MS office on the mac so bad there isn’t anything wrong with it and it’s one of the products they make that’s pretty good.
Another hit for MS.
The END is not far.
I WILL SLAY THEE. I WILL SLAY THEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
….yes dear im coming….my battle against gates and his evil empire will continue after dinner…..
Maybe I missed this part of the article, but isn’t Microsoft changing its Office file formats in the next release of Microsoft Office? If so, are those updated formats the ones that Microsoft is sharing?
Interesting…
Microsoft have been very worried about their antitrust case with the European Union.
They have found themselves up against a powerful body that can’t be bought off. The EU has the ability to harm Microsoft in a number of ways if they don’t comply.
Recently Microsoft has been trying to enlist help from the US government to tackle the EU. If that was a serious proposal, then Microsoft would be making a misjudgement by upping the stakes in that way.
Releasing the details of the file formats is one of the major conditions that the EU insisted upon. Perhaps Microsoft is unexpectedly showing some sense after all.
It will be fascinating to see what progress has been made in 18 months. My guess is that the scheme will have run into some sort of ‘hitch’. Microsoft have been continually playing for time over this case and I’ll be surprised if they aren’t still playing for time.
Why did they do that? Isnt it better to keep the toilet door closed?
M$ is not to be trusted.
And, given the source, one has to ask the question: Are their file formats any good? Or will we all end up using the least common denominator? Somehow, i fear so …assuming, of course, this actually comes to fruition. Time will tell.
And why should it take 18 months, if this is genuine? So many questions!