Novell has launched for download an Open XML translator that permits end users to open and help save Microsoft Workplace Open XML-formatted word-processing paperwork in OpenOffice. About the early morning of March five,
Windows 7 Key, the Novell download web site was down. However the translator download was working over the weekend. The translator is available for immediate download.Novell officials said late last year that they planned to create a version of OpenOffice that would include Workplace Open XML (OOXML) file-format compatibility. Office Program Manager Brian Jones blogged about availability of the Novell translator on March 2, noting that Microsoft end users now have a few different options for "support(ing) Open XML on a couple different platforms." (Sun recently released an ODF-Office 2003 translator. And Microsoft and a handful of partners launched an ODF-OOXML translator for Word in early February.) Even though these translators currently enable sharing of word-processing paperwork and not yet other office-suite applications like Excel or PowerPoint, Jones is ready to declare the file-format wars over. "I think at this point we can really move onto significantly more productive and collaborative discussion and admit that we are no longer in any sort of 'file format war.' If we ever were really in a war,
Office 2007 Key, it's now more than,
Office Professional 2007, and both sides are winners. Over the past few years,
Office 2010 Download, we've had two important file formats come into the market,
Windows 7 Ultimate Key, OpenXML and ODF. Both were designed for different purposes, and both have been valuable additions to the market. Now we can also say that we have multiple implementations of both formats." Hmmm. Seems a tad premature to declare a victory (or even a truce) to me. What say you, readers? Are the file-format wars between Microsoft and the ODF backers over?