Is Microsoft Open XML Really Open?
Recently, Microsoft has announced they're new "Open XML" format, in order to ease fears of their growing document format dominance. But is Open XML really that open? Kevin Carmoney over at The Tech Zone isn't so sure of that.
"Microsoft is only doing this because they are facing competition from the likes of Adobe and the emerging OpenDocument standard. Microsoft would certainly prefer for the world to use their proprietary file formats, such as .doc (Word for Windows), .xls (Excel) and .ppt (PowerPoint). As long as most people are using these closed formats, it becomes much more difficult for alternatives, such as OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, and in the broader sense, Linux, to gain traction."
