Sometimes, very small decisions can have a very big impact on how people work in the future. So join us, on a journey into the future: a story that begins with a little fudge. In a little noticed move, Microsoft has slid on its commitment to produce open standard file formats for its Office products. By maintaining a proprietary binary format that frequently changes, Microsoft has kept the exit costs high for potential defectors. However, Microsoft has for a long touted its investment in XML as a sign of its commitment to openness.
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