Novell to support Office XML format in OpenOffice

Microsoft and Novell may have a love-hate relationship going, especially since their interoperability agreement last month. Unlike some couples, however, the pair seem like they're able to put aside their differences long enough to get things done. Case in point: Novell announced today they will start offering support for Microsoft's Office Open XML format in OpenOffice--as soon as January. "OpenOffice.org is very important to Novell. And as our customers deploy Linux desktops across their organizations, they're telling us that sharing documents between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office is a must-have," said Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy officer for open source at Novell. This comes hot on the heels of Corel's announcement that they too would support  both the Open XML and OpenOffice file formats. It looks like we're getting closer and closer to true cross-platform compatibility and portability with all of the major productivity suites.

For more on the announcement:
- see this CNET story