Documentation for Microsoft legacy formats is out there, ODF is the one universal ISO standard

Earlier on today, a reader rightly pointed out that Microsoft ought to support ODF at this stage. Yes, now more than ever before. The matter of fact is that Microsoft may already be doing this, but if any of the BRM attendants finds out, it will have a terrible effect. It can demolish OOXML, at least as a standard, as opposed to some arbitrary format du jour from Office 2007.

Bob Sutor makes an interesting new argument. Microsoft claims to have opened up its legacy formats (never mind the endless licensing traps it contains). It did so in order to harbour OOXML and defend its chances at the BRM.

Now that the BRM has fallen apart, the whole thing can be used against Microsoft and render OOXML utterly obsolete.

These formats being available now rather removes the “OOXML as documentation of Microsoft legacy formats” argument for the need for OOXML. Of course, they could have been made widely available before, but weren’t, for some reason.

I utterly reject the need for OOXML as a standard because it is a description of the Microsoft Office 2007 formats. OOXML was released from ECMA within a month or so of Office 2007, so claiming any sort of “legacy” for Office 2007 is ridiculous.

Microsoft ought to simply embrace the international standard (ODF) and rely on availability of documentation covering legacy formats, for those wishing to convert old documents to ODF. It's very simple really. No need for multiple competing formats, either. ⬆

Related articles:

• Microsoft CTO: ODF is an 'elegant' standard



• Microsoft quietly supporting ODF?



• Countries adopting ODF (OpenDocument Format) Annual Report and Future Outlook