Responding to a request from the European Union to improve data interoperability, Microsoft has committed in perpetuity to a royalty-free license of Office-related XML document formats.
However, the software giant decided not to follow the EU's suggestion that Microsoft submit its XML document formats, or schemas, to an outside standards body, deciding instead to maintain in-house the ongoing development of the specifications. Microsoft also pledged to provide appropriate documentation and encourage the creation of "filters" by others that allow other applications to read Microsoft's word processor XML format. Sun Microsystems in September said it would create document filters for the OpenOffice open source desktop suite.
News source: C|Net News.com
However, the software giant decided not to follow the EU's suggestion that Microsoft submit its XML document formats, or schemas, to an outside standards body, deciding instead to maintain in-house the ongoing development of the specifications. Microsoft also pledged to provide appropriate documentation and encourage the creation of "filters" by others that allow other applications to read Microsoft's word processor XML format. Sun Microsystems in September said it would create document filters for the OpenOffice open source desktop suite.
News source: C|Net News.com
World of Warcraft will be available as a standard edtion for a suggested $49.99, and as a special collector's edition for $79.99. The special edition includes the game on both CD-ROM and DVD, a behind-the-scenes DVD, an exclusive in-game pet, a cloth map of the game world, a soundtrack CD, an Art of the World of Warcraft coffee table book, and a commemorative game manual signed by the development team. Both versions include a first month free. Pretty sweet.
"World of Warcraft has been our largest undertaking to date," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "When we set out to create a massively multiplayer online game, our goal was to expand the scope of the Warcraft universe by offering an incredibly dynamic game experience. We're extremely proud of the game we've created, and we believe players will be very pleased when they see what we have in store for them."
Now, one of the only questions remaining -- apart from what your first character name will be -- is whether you can finish Half-Life 2 in time to pick up the next great PC release of the season. We think you can. We think this is going to be one very hot holiday.
well yeah... how can they expect them to do that? If they do that, then they lose the power of adding new features to their own software. They are publishing a specification! That is quite a bit of arm breaking for microsoft, as it is like giving an advantage to their competition. As long as they continue publishing a specification on their XML format, it is up to other software firms to keep up.
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