Microsoft to offer Office 2003 XML Schemas royalty-free
crn.com | at | by Mike
In a move designed to please the European Commission and governments globally, Microsoft announced on Monday that it would make its Office 2003 XML reference schemas available on a royalty-free basis beginning in early December.
The decision, which follows Microsoft's discussions with the Danish government and three days of antitrust hearings last week, will give Linux, Unix and Windows developers access to the word processing, spreadsheet and form template XML schemas for several Office 2003 applications including Word 2003, Excel 2003 and InfoPath 2003.
The Danish government is the first customer taking advantage of the royalty-free license and will use the XML schemas to enhance interoperability of documents exchanged across public agencies. CRN first wrote about the deal on Friday.