IBM and Sun Joins Hand For OpenOffice.org

After a few years of flirting with the idea of
developing its own suite of applications, perhaps under the Lotus
banner, that support the OASIS OpenDocument format, IBM has decided to
join Sun Microsystems in the development of OpenOffice.org, the
principal open source ODF applications suite.

Sun currently produces the commercial
ODF-supporting suite StarOffice; and since late 2005, when Sun and IBM
openly courted development groups to meet at IBM's Armonk headquarters
to plan the future of ODF together, observers speculated IBM could be
working on an "Office killer" to go up against Microsoft.

Linux Foundation attorney and board member Andrew
Updegrove saw IBM's move today not only as express support for
OpenOffice but tacit support for StarOffice as well. "With OpenOffice
available for free, and StarOffice at a very significant discount from
[Microsoft] Office, OpenOffice clearly offers the most credible and
formidable ODF-compliant competitor to Office,"

source: http://www.betanews.com/article/IBM_to_Develop_OpenOfficeorg_with_Sun/1189463043

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