Microsoft backs Open source's ODF

After declaring its intention to map out a strategy for getting Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) users to pay royalties for patent violation, Microsoft announced its support for including Open Document Format (ODF) to the list of business standards run by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) despite ODF being the chief rival of Microsoft’s own Open XML when it comes to document standards.

OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications also abbreviated as ODF is based upon the XML format originally created and implemented by the OpenOffice.org office suite and is widely used in open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office. ANSI recommends business best practices, standards and guidelines to a range of industries in the US.

Microsoft also declared its support for an open-source project to create a converter between Ecma Open XML--a set of file formats closely tied to Microsoft Office--and a Chinese national standard called Unified Office Format (UOF) through a new collaborative effort with the Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

Beta versions of previously announced translators between power point and Excel shall also be made available as part of the Open XML Translator project launched in July 2006 which will work with the XP 2003 and 2007 versions of the two.

“We see ODF serving a different need than other document format standards that exist in the market, such as the Ecma Open XML formats,” said Tom Robertson, Microsoft’s general manager for Interoperability & Standards in a written statement.

Microsoft said it supports ODF because businessmen, their main clients, want software which they can use to communicate and exchange information in a large heterogeneous network.

Andrew Updegrove, an advocate for open technology standards and attorney with Gesmer Updegrove LLC in Boston, reacted on the reasons given by the company saying, "On the one hand, Microsoft is saying 'Nice standard you've got there’, while on the other hand, warning 'implement it if you dare, but only for a price’," as written in his blog.

He also said that he thinks that by supporting ODF as an ANSI standard, it is challenge for the company to support the approval of Open XML as a global standard when a final vote for the draft specification comes before the ISO. He continued saying that Microsoft voted for ODF when it came before the ISO (International Organization for Standards), while IBM cast the only negative vote for Open XML when it was up for approval by standards organization, Ecma International, Updegrove added.

ISO has already approved ODF, while Open XML will be up for an approval vote late this year.

Days ago, in an interview with America’s business magazine, Fortune, Microsoft accused Linux, one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software (FOSS), of violating 42 Microsoft patents and an additional 65 by its user interface and other design elements. Also OpenOffice.org was accused of infringing 45 Microsoft patents.