Users should “beware” of Microsoft ODF support plans

The ODF Alliance has greeted with scepticism Microsoft's announcement of its intention to include support for the Open Document Format in the first half of 2009.

"The proof will be whether and when Microsoft's promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own format. Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases," said Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance.

"Clearly this announcement reflects the strong demand from customers worldwide, especially governments, for access to ODF, a truly universal, open standards-based file format," Marcich said.

He claimed that until Microsoft enables its Microsoft Office users to create and save in ODF by default as easily and fully as in Microsoft's own formats, governments will continue to adopt a "buyer beware" attitude.

Microsoft is promoting its own "open standard" OOXML data format to persuade users that their data will not be locked into Microsoft platforms.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 released to public beta >>