Ohhh ... oops I thought M$ came up with the plug-in ... well M$ should have made themselves compatible not the OpenDocument Foundation making M$'s software compatible for them. That sounds kinda strange though why would the OpenDocument Foundation make a plug-in for an M$ product ? Isn't that M$'s job ... won't M$ complain ?
Yeah, it is the job of Microsoft to supply the compatability their customers are asking for.
I think OD Foundation did this for three reasons.
One... MS has been trying very very hard to paint ODF as an OpenOffice-only thing. If you have been following the Massachussets mess, you will see them make blatent statements about this.
MS doesn't want to talk about ODF vs their proprietary format. They would rather talk about MS Office vs. OpenOffice. It's not a real argument. They could put ODF capability in their office suite very easily. They
just won't.
By making this plugin, ODF has absolute proof that this "argument" is complete and utter bull. "What do you mean ODF is only for OpenOffice? Its an open specification that anybody can use. It even works for MS Office97 or later with our plugin!"
Two... it will make it easier for people to transition their files to ODF.
Three... it gives MS the finger.
MS can't complain. They put VBA capability in their Office programs solely for the purpose of letting people develop plugins and macros and extensions in general, and placed no restrictions on them.