Microsoft promises ODF support by mid 2009
SOFTWARE JUGGERNAUT Microsoft has promised to allow its ubiquitous Office suite of applications to work with an array of open source document formats by the middle of next year.
The move, which follows intense pressure from the European Commission, will make Word, Excel and Powerpoint amongst others compatible with the likes of the Open Document Format (ODF).
The Commission, which has already made Vole dig down the back of the sofa for $1.42 billion in fines over its unfair practices, has said that it "will investigate whether the announced support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice."
Yahoo News reports that Thomas Vinje, a spokesman for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) - a rabble of Vole-bating companies including IBM, Nokia and Oracle - said that Microsoft's promises were seen as "steps in the right direction" but that they were "not nearly enough."
"A closer look at their substance," he continued, "suggests that Microsoft is still playing for time to further consolidate its super-dominant position, and that continued anti-trust vigilance will be necessary."
He also described Microsoft's target of supporting ODF by the first half of 2009 as "pretty underwhelming."
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Is this the same Microsoft that had ODF compatability and withdred it and invented its own self-incompatible standard as a side show?
If microsoft ever conforms to standards its done for - its only hope is being proprietary.

OOOOh officer I know I was speeding but please dont fine me - I promise to drive slower in a couple of years time.........
Could they be a little less specific? No mention of how cumbersome and "feature(bug)-packed" this optional add-on will be. Not to be too pessimistic, but I'll believe it when I see it... Given their recent track record of success with Vista (and it's release date), I won't hold my breath...
Microsoft is now considering ODF and planning to play more of an active role in OASIS? (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).

The ironic part is that its was Microsoft who chose not to get involved in OASIS's development process of ODF. Had they done it in the first place they wouldn't be in this mess! (Especially with the EU).

Their "sudden change of heart" with words like "interoperability" is always met with skepticism, doubt, and concern. Their generosity is viewed as insincere and "gotchas" will be expect.

One only has to ask themselves this simple question: 

"If the EU wasn't on their backs with big fines, would they have done this on their own accord?"

Clearly not. They're being pressured into it, and that's not good, especially for end-users. You'll end up with half hearted results that will do no one any good.

Notice how Microsoft always leaves things pretty open ended and "open to interpretation"?...I find it interesting that MS rarely offers a straight "Yes/No" answer. 

(The only exception to this seems to be in some of their employee blogs. Well, stuff that hasn't been sanitized by their Marketing folks)
:p Had anyone bothered to check elsewhere you'd see that this will be "native" support i.e. provided in the "save as..." dialog, just like saving to your very own MS 2003 formats. It won't be an inconvienient plugin and will be setable as the default save format.

It will be in SP2 for Office 2k7 and part of "Office 14" from the smack go.

[looks like you've checked the usual bogs -Ed]