Microsoft claims that Australia will benefit from "greater choice" if local standards bodies vote this week to accept the Office Open XML format as an ISO standard.
Sun Microsystems plans to release a plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003 that will allow two-way compatibility with the OpenDocument Format, the company announced Wednesday in the US.
The conflict over document formats has taken a twist as some advocates for OpenDocument, or ODF, abandon the format in favor of the World Wide Web (W3) Consortium's Compound Document Formats standard.
The recently formed OpenDocument Format Alliance is expressing its confidence that the file format will be approved by the International Organisation for Standardisation next month.
The European Commission is reluctant to recommend the OpenDocument file format, even though the format has been endorsed by international standards groups.
Michael Meeks is a distinguished engineer at Novell. But his current project may be his toughest yet. He is in charge of tackling interoperability between Novell's OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Microsoft Office. And as with anything relating to Microsoft, this involves more than just technology.
In Mannheim, a preference for "open" standards -- not cost -- is driving the German city's shift to Linux.
OpenOffice.org 2.0, the freeware version of Sun's StarOffice 8, is a great deal for small-business users who don't mind browsing online forums for technical support. But enterprises are better served by StarOffice 8.
History of British PCs
The cash-strapped UK National Museum of Computing is home to an exhibition of the evolution of British PCs.… Watch it now
In this exclusive video interview, Optus chief information officer Lawrie Turner speaks to ZDNet.com.au about being the IT head for Australia's number two telco.
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