Microsoft Office Open XML (odf)

Will it be join ’em or beat ’em? Will it be OASIS ODF or MSOffice O(X)DF? Microsoft has laid out its strategy (the white paper is at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/developers/fileguide.mspx#top
but appears to be loosening things up with its recent “covenant not to sue” (http://www.microsoft.com/office/xml/covenant.mspx). ECMA has given its blessing, but the article that makes this of particular interest is from today’s NYTimes. Move over pdf, here comes some form of odf-ness…
The Times article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/technology/03open.html?th&emc=th
More info on Open Document Format, ECMA, Office Open XML at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Open_XML