Microsoft supports open source's ODF

Microsoft has announced its support for including open document format
(ODF) to the list of business standards run by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI). ANSI recommends business best practices, standards and guidelines to a range of
industries in the US.

ODF can be considered the chief rival of Microsoft’s own Open XML
when it comes to document standards. Yet recently Microsoft had declared its intention to
map out a strategy for getting Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) users to pay royalties
for patent violation.

Microsoft also declared its support for an open-source project to create a
converter between Ecma Open XML—a set of file formats closely tied to Microsoft
Office—and a Chinese national standard called Unified Office Format (UOF) through a
new collaborative effort with the Beihang University.

Microsoft said it supports ODF because their main clients, who are
business houses and corporate users, want software that they can use to communicate and
exchange information in a large heterogeneous network.