Open XML Translator is an open source tool for enabling Microsoft Office to read and write Open Document Format files and ODF-supporting applications, such as OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, to read and write Office Open XML files.
The Linux company joined the Microsoft-backed open source project in June as part of the interoperability deal struck between the two companies. Linspire joined Novell on the project, while Xandros and Turbolinux have also subsequently got involved. Novell announced that its implementation of the Open XML Translator was available with Novell’s edition of the OpenOffice.org application suite in March.
The Open XML Translator project was created in July 2006 in response to growing adoption of ODF. While Microsoft is not directly involved in the project, it drafted in partners such as third-party vendors, with French software firm CleverAge, Indian testing firm Aztecsoft, and Germany’s Dialogika, to avoid any suggestions that it was manipulating the formats to its own advantage.
Linspire was the second Linux vendor after Novell to sign up for an interoperability agreement with Microsoft. As well as joining Open XML, the company also licensed Microsoft’s RT Audio Codec to enable voice-enabled interoperability between Linspire’s Pidgin client and Microsoft’s Office Communicator and Live Messenger instant messaging clients.
Linspire also licensed a number of Microsoft TrueType fonts and has agreed to support Windows Media 10 audio and video codecs. These three technologies will only be available to Linspire users if they purchase a patent SKU however, and they will not be included in the community-developed Freespire.
