How can Microsoft claim its xml paper specification is platform independent but requires proprietary MS software to run - req's vista xp or srvr'03 - dotnet1-2-and3 - And MS Core XML Services v6?
Because you can write software to read the documents on other
platforms. The current existence or absence of software for reading
and creating the documents does not affect whether or not the
specification is platform-independent. The internet is
platform-independent, for instance, regardless of the fact that I
can't access it on my Commodore 64. OpenDocument Format (a
competing document format) is also cross-platform with an open
specification, but there is not (and probably never will be)
software for reading it on MS-DOS.