After trashing the Open Source movement and Linux Microsoft finally swallowed the bitter pill of the popularity of Open Source. Microsoft (MSFT) has made available the Beta version of Office Open XML converter for Open Document Format (ODF). The converter is available on SourceForge and is limited to Microsoft Word documents created by Office 2007 version, right now.
ODF is supported by Microsoft Office's open source competitor OpenOffice by Sun Microsystems Inc.(SUNW). Open Office was earlier called Star Office but it never caught on as a major force despite a lot of promotion by SUN.
According to a Red Herring report the pressure for convertibility to ODF came from Government agencies who were uncomfortable keeping Office files in proprietary format.
Uncomfortable basing their records on documents formatted exclusively in Microsoft’s Open XML Format, a number of government agencies around the globe have begun beating the drums for the OpenDocument Format (ODF), a standard not tied to a specific vendor.
The call for an open format for government documents has grown much louder in recent months, prompting Microsoft to begin the process of building a bridge between OpenDocument and Microsoft Office.
Continued...Microsoft trying Open Source to block Google in Office software?
