I found this article on the Interesting People mailing list’s archives: required reading if you want to know what’s really being talked about/acted upon.
Often the lynchpin is a standardised file format policy — so you can buy whatever you want, so long as it is 100 per cent Microsoft file format compatible, which is all but impossible as Microsoft changes its formats so often and for no real purpose other than to lock in customers.
Isn’t file compatibility the chief gripe most people have with trying to work with MSFT applications? Between locking non-Windows licensees out and locking its own customers in, there’s a lot to put up with.
Here’s a note on Tim O’Reilly’s weblog to the same effect: Forcing Microsoft to open the office file formats would have done more to encourage competition than just about anyone else. It would be nice to see users’ data belong to them again, with the power to switch to other applications if they so choose.
Users owning their data? What a radical concept. He has a link to a story at the Register on Sun’s XML/open standards initiative.