Can't word open odt's ?? It might not be the default "I'm dumb and can only double-click" program to do so, but if you right click on the document and say "open with" ?
odt stands from open-document text. It is not a proprietary format so Microsoft should know how to make Word handle it... I understand they want to push their own proprietary stuff, but it seems weird they would limit themselves (no, can't open open-documents! You gotta use our own secret format! -> If I can't open everything, why would I bother with you?!).
I'll have to try next time I boot my computer in Windows at work..