Novell News

Microsoft's announcement that it will submit its Office Open XML file format to ECMA to be ratified as an open standard has raised a few eyebrows. The move is a bit of a surprise, given Microsoft's well-known history and position on open standards relating to its Office software.Novell is the major external contributor to OpenOffice (our site www.go-oo.org is the developer go-to site for new contributors to OpenOffice), and Novell is also backing up the OpenDocument effort. As an active member of ECMA, we are happy to participate with the ECMA review group to ensure the specification that results is complete enough that it allows for alternative office suites to interoperate with the Office Open XML file format.