NoOOXML

Are you aware of the Microsoft Open XML support on other plattforms? On Linux for instance.

Novell: OpenOffice. OpenXML Translator

The odfconverter-1.0.0-2.oxt file works only with Windows, and the odf-converter-1.0.0-5.i586.rpm file works only on SUSE® Linux Enterprise, SUSE Linux, and openSUSE. On both platforms, the OpenXML Translator works only with the latest Novell® edition of OpenOffice.org.

It is the "OpenOffice.org Novell Edition", that is a kind of half fork of the official OpenOffice.org. Novell is pulling the strings to get the Gnome project to adopt its version as the official Gnome OpenOffice. This fork is using the last version of the OOo and adding/changing features to
it to create a different product: the "Novell Edition".

The main difference between the OpenOffice.org Novell Edition and the official version of the project is that the Novell Edition is encouraged to provide import and export to OOXML. Additionally it includes some add-ons that they didn't want to integrate in the official version of OpenOffice.org (indeed they chosed an incompatible license to prevent any kind of integration of their code in the official project). These add-ons can be seen here: http://www.go-oo.org

All this strategy of to divide the "instrumental" OOo project probably is under the umbrella of the Microsoft-Novell agreement.

Meanwhile Mario Wendt, Interoperability architect at Microsoft Germany and member of the DIN Committee is quoted by the press. He is quite sceptical about the mapping and admitted failure:

"Man kann nicht einfach ein Papier in der einen Applikation und der anderen nehmen, übereinander legen und abgleichen", meinte Wendt.
"You cannot take a sheet of paper from one application and the other, compare and apply changes."

The Heise article continues:

Laut dem Microsoft-Vertreter arbeitet die entsprechende Arbeitsgruppe beim DIN zusammen mit Novell, Konverter-Herstellern sowie Teilnehmer der französischen Standardisierungsorganisation schon seit fünf Monaten intensiv an "Brücken" zwischen den beiden Dokumentenformaten. Der zunächst gewählte Ansatz, die Strukturen der zwei Spezifikation durch ein direktes "Mapping" miteinander zu vereinen, sei angesichts der Komplexität der Materie fehlgeschlagen.
According to the Microsoft representative the working group of DIN (for format conversion) has been collaborating intensively on "bridges" between both document formats with Novell, Converter-producers and members of the French standard organisation for five month. The first chosen approach, to unite the two specification via a direct "mapping" has failed due to the complexity of the issue.

Nice plan. Microsoft should have the least pain. Its business partners less pain and everyone else will be unable to support the ooxml standard. But is that what we call a genuine International Standard compliant with the WTO Technical Barriers to trade agreement? Their strategy for the BRM is simple: no changes to the specification that would hurt us but we want the pain for competitors: They can use converters which don't work because we made OOXML unnecessary incompatible to the existing international standard.

See also: http://www.noooxml.org/conversion