Why OpenOffice.org uses OpenDocument

On GullFOSS, blog of OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun, Michael Brauer, OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC Chair, said a clear "no" to whether OpenOffice.org may switch to ECMA Office Open XML as native file format.


http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/why_openoffice.org_uses_opendocument

"The documents that our users and customers create with OpenOffice.org belong them, not us. They, not us, must be able to read or process them in the near, far, and very far future. And they, not us, must have the choice to use whatever application they want to do so. And they, not us, have to bear the consequences if this is not given."

"For this reason, the XML project already in 2000 decided to develop an XML file format for office applications that ensures interoperability and long-time access to documents, and that may be used by other office applications as well."