Microsoft has pledged to support the ODF file format as well as Adobe's PDF file format in forthcoming versions of it's Office suite expected in the first half of 2009. While this is good news for improving compatibility between office suites, it strikes me as pretty late in the game for this kind of move. Open Office already supports Microsoft's file formats and other than that, I'm not sure anyone else in this Microsoft has pledged to support the ODF file format as well as Adobe’s PDF file format in forthcoming versions of it’s Office suite expected in the first half of 2009. While this is good news for improving compatibility between office suites, it strikes me as pretty late in the game for this kind of move. Open Office already supports Microsoft’s file formats and other than that, I’m not sure anyone else in this market even matters. I mean, is anyone left using WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3 anymore? Still, ODF support will likely make it easier to share Microsoft Office documents without forcing other users to purchase Microsoft Office. And creating PDF documents in Office has never been an automatic process, so that alone is an improvement.While many are happy about the move, others, including the EU and the Open Document Format Alliance, are skeptical. A spokesman for the EU called Microsoft’s actions “pretty underwhelming.” They want to see actions, not words. Still, I expect Microsoft will have more announcements and news to show support for interoperability and open source at this year’s OSCON conference in Portland in July. Open Source