I have to agree with RTFM on this. Microsoft has a history of adopting or introducing open standards and then slightly modifying them to make them just incompatible enough to keep people on their software. They did this with Java. At first the deal with Sun was supposed to allow Microsoft to develop a version of Java that ran better on Windows. Fair enough. Who would know Windows better than its creator? The problem came when they started adding features to the Windows version and Microsoft's Java development suite that only worked with tht version of Java. So now companies that had spent large amounts of money on developing Java apps, probably because they wanted the cross platform compatibility, could only run the apps on Windows. It was then usually too expensive to move to another platform, so now they are stuck using Microsoft products.
This policy of embrace and extend was confirmed after the Halloween documents were released a few years ago. These documents were internal Microsoft memos talking about their response to Linux (Microsoft confirmed the documents as legitimate). As they couldn't undercut the price or the vast community of developers, one option was to embrace and extend open protocols and standards.
Maybe this case will actually work the way it looks, but Microsoft does have a long history of twisting things around for their own exclusive benefit.
goates