Group: 2008 progress shows ODF will prevail

23.12.2008

Microsoft has agreed to support ODF in Office as part of Office 2007 Service Pack 2, which is due out between February and April 2009, and eventually it will implement the current OOXML specification in Office 2007 as well.

Last week, Microsoft publicly outlined how it would implement ODF in that service pack release and expects to in the next several weeks to release implementation notes for ECMA 376 as well.

However, Marcich expressed concern over the implementation of ODF revealed by Microsoft last week, saying it has raised some eyebrows among ODF proponents for not being in line with how the ODF specification is currently implemented.

"It suggests that Microsoft will deviate substantially from the course taken by other vendors," he said. "This could break interoperability."

ODF proponents have reason to worry, as the process to ISO approval for OOXML was riddled with complaints that Microsoft acted unscrupulously, the standards process was not implemented properly and the specification approved was too unwieldy to implement.