I was having problems opening a file sent by my stepdaughter, Lana. As near as I could tell it was an OpenOffice spreadsheet in the .sdp format. OpenOffice is a free office suite, compatible with Microsoft Office and supported by a number of professional organizations, including Sun Microsystems. And best of all, it is free.

So I went to the OpenOffice homepage and what do I spy but this announcement. Naturally, I was concerned. I have been steadily moving away from all Microsoft products. This story forced the coffee up the throat, out the nose and on to the keyboard! See for yourself...

Microsoft Buys OpenOffice.org!

For an undisclosed sum reputed to be in the billions, Microsoft's Bill Gates has personally bought the leading open-source desktop project. Saying he "was sick and tired of open-source eating away at his profits," the world's richest man decided to put an end to the nuisance and simply buy OpenOffice.org. It will form part of a growing list of Microsoft acquisitions, including several erstwhile competitors, a considerable number of prominent politicians, and a few small governments.

The initially stunned OpenOffice.org community--a happy-go-lucky international band numbering in the hundreds of thousands--later turned to champagne to celebrate their newfound wealth. "Bless Bill!" one happy Torontonian exclaimed, bubbly in hand. "With all this money, I can beat Mark's time in orbit!"

Gates has assured all current OpenOffice.org users that their future migration path to Microsoft Office is guaranteed thanks to OpenOffice.org's faultless support of MS Office files formats. Users can further rest assured that the full functionality currently provided by OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be available in MS-Office 2020 - or possibly 2030.