OT: Massachusetts Verdict: MS Office Formats Out

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Wed Sep 28 16:46:24 UTC 2005


Mike McCarty wrote:
> Fajar Priyanto wrote:
> 
>> The future is forming up....
>>
>> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1863060,00.asp
>>
>> The state of Massachusetts Friday made it official: It will use only 
>> nonproprietary document formats in state-affiliated offices effective 
>> Jan. 1, 2007. Although state CIO Peter Quinn has said repeatedly that 
>> this issue does not represent "the state versus Microsoft Corp. —or 
>> any one company," adoption of the long-debated plan may result in all 
>> versions of Microsoft's Office productivity suite being phased out of 
>> use throughout the state's executive branch agencies. 
> 
> 
> Or MS could "open" its document format...
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Mike

If you have read the whole discussion over the past couple of weeks, MS 
did try convincing Mass. that it's XML specification was "open".  The 
problem is that it isn't open enough to meet the requirements of Mass.

Of course, MS only has to support OASIS to be an accepted program.  Not 
much of a problem since MS has been involved with the OASIS project.  Of 
course they have already written the OASIS organization about their 
intent "not to support" OASIS.  Heck, Microsoft is a sponsor to the 
OASIS project as you can see from the OASIS site.

http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

Microsoft's comments all come down to money.
-- 
Robin Laing




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