“This means that short of anyone else developing applications to support ooxml (I am not aware of anyone else developing software to support ooxml other than Microsoft), you have to buy Microsoft Office 2007 and above to make use of ooxml. This, of course, has a substantial cost implication for bulk users.”

Paul Jacobson, I want to know from you WHY you continue to write blog postings which contain NO evidence of personal effort put into researching them?

Here is a list of software products which support Microsoft’s ooxml standard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML#Adoption

You’re not AWARE of any other applications, because you couldn’t be bothered to do a brief Google search on your subject before writing your article. This is evidence of laziness on your part.

Bottom line is that you’re a shoddy blogger.

I’ll say it again, if you’re not prepared to establish the facts BEFORE you spout off, why should anyone read your blog articles?

You are wasting our time, and what is WORSE, you are spreading disinformation because you aren’t prepared to lift a finger to confirm facts before you commit them to your blog.