That's the way buisness goes. I'm pretty sure all of you know that Microsoft has molded themselves in a monopoly. However, MS is such a big part of the technology industries that the economy can't afford to have it shut down. And that's buisness. They're smart (yet evil) in only making microsoft products compatible with other MS product:

people complain because m$ makes it very difficult to transact with anyone not using a m$ product. if a person using star office sends a document to someone using office, the office user gets the message "support for this file type has not been installed. Would you like to install it now? They freak and call the sysadmin, who usually complains like hell for being pulled away from more important duties (irc) and usually doesn't know what star office is anyway and why should something he/she didn't authorize need to be used at all.
I had that problem. My computer at home had another word processer other that office and when I went to school to print it out or to edit parts of it, Office could not read it so I was stuck. The solution I had to fixing this, was getting office xp from the school for a $10.00 fee. (Universities have a "reproduction" licence). Ever notice how 99.99% percent of the computers issued out with Windows installed come with Microsoft Works and not Microsoft Office? Works uses the WKS extension and microsoft uses DOC. Two totally different files coming from the same company. One can't read the other? Get both. If kind of brings up the golden rule for buisness. ::Supply and Demand::
A good majority of the schools, universities, colleges, work places, etc. use microsoft products and only microsoft products because the PC computer is seen as a better buisness computer than the Mac. And what do the PCs come with? A fully functional Microsoft OS complete with games, other MS products preinstalled, 2 bedroom; 1 bath, kitchen, home entertainment center. IT DICES IT SLICES.... you get the picture.