As they try to compete with the ODF standard, MS have put forward 
their Office Open XML (no confusion with OpenOffice intended I'm 
sure) as a standard. If this gets through it would be a sad day - see 
here to get a feel for what they're trying to pull, and to get a feel 
for the good work being done by OSS supporters:
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections
ATB, Peter