Question

I heard Microsoft allows use of commercially available Office UI controls, with the exception of competing products, such as a word processor or spreadsheet app, etc.

How true is that?

Also, if it is not true, do you know of any free Ribbon controls?

Answer 1

You should look at Jensen Harris’ blog entry about licensing the Office user interface which explains it in great detail. However I believe the relevant point here is:

There’s only one limitation: if you are building a program which directly competes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or Access (the Microsoft applications with the new UI), you can’t obtain the royalty-free license.