Wow. I use the OpenOffice suite, mostly for word processing, and while it will save documents in MSWord format, it doesn't quite get it right. When you open the doc in Word, the formatting is often a little off. This presents a challenge when sharing docs with other users via, say, email. I've been using the PDF option, instead, which results in very large files because while the PDF markup scheme is open, the Adobe compression algorithm is proprietary. At least, that's my understanding.

But this development might mean that OpenOffice (or other programs) can nail the formatting properly for MSWord. Interesting.

MS is obviously now going to have to leverage other features of their software (DRM?) in order to make it compete.

Has obvious implications for preservation too. Me, I won't be happy until the talking paper clip goes to SourceForge.