"We are very optimistic that IBM's contribution of technology and engineering resources will provide tangible benefits to the community membership and to users of OpenOffice.org technology around the world," said Mike Rhodin, General Manager of IBM's Lotus division as it was announced that IBM has joined the OpenOffice.org community.

OpenOffice.org, which uses the ODF as its native file format as well as fully supporting other common file formats (including Microsoft Office), is considered to be the leading open-source productivity suite.

"We are excited about IBM joining Sun and other contributors to the OpenOffice.org community in pushing development of OpenOffice.org and the OpenDocument Format," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of OpenOffice.org member Ubuntu, the Linux distribution.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz was effusive:

"Bluntly put, with only one (rather unlikely) exception, there is no more credible enterprise partner for OpenOffice.org than IBM."

"In the seven years since Sun founded the project, OpenOffice.org has fueled and filled the need for document data and productivity tools that are open and free," said Rich Green, Executive Vice President, Software at Sun.

"Open source software and ODF are having a profound impact around the world, with numerous communities and organizations coming together to support these initiatives and governments, and corporations and schools standardizing on the software. We look forward to working with IBM and the other members of OpenOffice.org to ensure that this momentum continues. We invite others to join us in the community and participate in building the future as OpenOffice.org and ODF continue to gain popularity across the planet,” Green added.

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