Former arch rivals Linspire and Microsoft have continued their recent rapprochement with a collaboration to improve interoperability between OpenOffice.org's Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft's Open XML.

Linspire said that it is joining Novell and Xandros to create bi-directional open source translators for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between ODF and Open XML.

The firm vowed that all future releases of Linspire and Freespire will include these bi-directional translators between ODF and Open XML.

"For Linux to gain acceptance beyond the server it must interoperate with the broader desktop computing ecosystem," said Kevin Carmony, chief executive at Linspire.

"Interoperability with Microsoft Office documents is critical, and Linspire is pleased to join this ongoing effort with Novell and Microsoft to bring document interoperability to our mutual customer base."

Microsoft's Open XML is currently under consideration for ratification by ISO/IEC JTC1, and is the default format for the recently released Microsoft Office 2007.

Jean Paoli, general manager for interoperability and XML architecture at Microsoft, said: "We believe in delivering interoperability by design for the benefit of our customers."