Just months after pulling every dirty trick known to man out of the bag to secure ISO approval for OOXML — the terminally broken document format that even Microsoft itself can't get to work — Evil Incorporated has now announced that the next version of Microsoft Office will include native support for the Open Document Format.

The declaration — to which only the extremely gullible give any credence — promises that ODF and other ISO-standard formats like Adobe's Portable Document Format will be integrated with Office "sometime next year" with the release of Office SP2. If the integration actually materializes, it would mean an end to the next-to-useless "translator" currently offered by Microsoft as an optional download, and would mean that customers could begin embracing platforms other than Microsoft's without fear of being locked out of documents from Office users.

The world, however, is not convinced. The major open-format groups have been quick to proclaim their well-placed skepticism, questioning whether Microsoft could ever bring itself to support a non-Microsoft format to the same level as their own. Most have not forgotten the depths to which Microsoft sank in order to push OOXML though the ISO, nor their longstanding campaigns to "embrace, extend, and exterminate" anyone with the temerity to compete against the Empire. The move doesn't come without a bright-side, though, as the European Commission — champion of all who oppose Monoposoft — has vowed to investigate, and if we're lucky, fine them another $1 billion or so.
__________________________
Justin Ryan is the News Editor for Linux Journal.
Look for him in the #linuxjournal IRC channel.