Microsoft Reverses on OpenDocument Format

Rob Updegrove 6 Jul, 2006 at 11:09am ET Article published in Tech

Microsoft has reversed its prior position and has agreed to support the OpenDocument Format in Office 2007 by providing a converter from its Open XML format to Open Document.

A beta of the Open XML translator for Word 2007 will be hosted on SourceForge.net sometime today. The translator will convert .docx Word documents to .odf and vice versa. Not only that, it will be available under the BSD open source license. Vole says anyone can submit bugs and contribute to the project.

The final tool will ship at the end of 2006, with converters for Excel and PowerPoint around early next year.

Source: The Inquirer

Comments

6 Jul 2006 ~ 11:40am jhenry A converter is not enough. Something that important should be integrated, not a plugin or a download from SF. Otherwise, how different would it really be from any other opensource style converter?
6 Jul 2006 ~ 12:15pm airbornflght You mean microsoft finally has something that is not proprietary? I mean yeh, its just a document format, but hey, thats pretty good, and its xml, so should make for cleaner files.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 12:27pm Enverex I agree entirely with JHenry, a converter isn't enough and it will be the difference between widely used and not.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:30pm Linc The problem with 'integrated' is that it could not then be offered under the <strike>BSOD</strike> BSD open source license.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:33pm airbornflght Yeh, thats right, if it was integrated, M$ would have to give a lot a lot away as far as the inner working of office.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:36pm Enverex

General Keebler wrote:

The problem with 'integrated' is that it could not then be offered under the <strike>BSOD</strike> BSD open source license.

Doesn't matter. Anyone can make a converter. Only MS can make Office able to open the format natively.

airbornflght wrote:

Yeh, thats right, if it was integrated, M$ would have to give a lot a lot away as far as the inner working of office.

No they wouldn't, that would only happen if they included licenced code. If they wrote it themselves (which they would) then they wouldn't have to release anything.

This is simply just MS trying to get some good PR to those that don't realise it won't help at all.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:47pm airbornflght

Enverex wrote:

Doesn't matter. Anyone can make a converter. Only MS can make Office able to open the format natively.

No they wouldn't, that would only happen if they included licenced code. If they wrote it themselves (which they would) then they wouldn't have to release anything.

This is simply just MS trying to get some good PR to those that don't realise it won't help at all.

I thought under the BSD license, the source had to be made available?
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:48pm Enverex

airbornflght wrote:

I thought under the BSD license, the source had to be made available?

.... and what open source code exactly will be in Office that would bring the BSD licence into effect?
6 Jul 2006 ~ 5:54pm airbornflght openoffice. Their format, so it must be reissued under the same license.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 6:09pm Enverex

airbornflght wrote:

openoffice. Their format, so it must be reissued under the same license.

But Office WONT include OpenOffice code, MS will write code to be able to open OpenOffice files, they wont be using BSD copyrighted code, it will be their own, ergo nothing will be under the BSD licence so nothing will have to be revealed.
6 Jul 2006 ~ 6:43pm airbornflght but isnt the format copyrighted under BSD?
6 Jul 2006 ~ 6:45pm Enverex

airbornflght wrote:

but isnt the format copyrighted under BSD?

No, BSD copyrights CODE, not "things". It copyrights that "thing" using their specific code. That's how WINE works, it's all Windows things but written from scratch by other people (the dlls, etc).