Open Microsoft

Microsoft will on Tuesday announce it is opening up access to its Office file formats to competitors, as part of a move to ensure the software giant does not lose lucrative government markets for its Office software.

The move will ensure that computer users will be able to open and work with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents without having to buy the Microsoft Office software to do so.


http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e9f5c0f8-5ab7-11da-8628-0000779e2340.html
http://www.computerworld.com/news/2005/story/0,11280,106437,00.html