Posted on 05/10/2006 7:45:08 AM PDT by ShadowAce
A trade association has blasted the Massachusetts Information and Technology Division (IDT) for requesting a plug-in for Microsoft's Office Suite, seizing on the issue as evidence that the state's policy of mandating the OpenDocument Format (ODF) is "a biased, open source-only preference policy."
The request for proposal (RFP) was posted last Wednesday but the OpenDocument Foundation Inc. said two days later that it has such a plug-in and it will be submitted soon to the IDT.
Late Monday, Melanie Wyne, executive director of the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC), said in a statement: "The RFP reveals that the choice presented by the previous ITD bureaucrats – i.e., ODF-compliant desktops for state agencies are the only viable options for citizens to have access to their data in the future – was purposely exclusionary, being primarily designed to distort the competitive landscape.
"In other words, it had little to do with access to documents, and everything to do with excluding proprietary software providers."
The ISC is a unit of CompTIA, which has supported Microsoft in its ongoing battles over the Massachusetts policy and, more recently, in the software giant's struggles with regulators in the European Union.
Wyne noted that "other governments" have closely followed the Massachusetts policy, which mandates that the state's documents be preserved in ODF starting in January. She railed away at what she called "a specious administrative process" that led to the mandate in Massachusetts complaining that the policy was really "an open source-only objective."
The IDT last updated the RFP last Wednesday.
Wyne observed that the issue is also important in Europe where EU regulators have not promoted ODF-compliant standards.
Microsoft is scheduled to release its Office 2007 version in January at about the same time Massachusetts is committed to implement the ODF-only policy. However, Microsoft is expected to try again with Massachusetts state officials after it receives expected approval for its new office software from the ECMA European standards body.
Translation: Microsoft accusses Massachussetts of open-source bias... :P
MS does of a lot of things using other entities--ISC, BSA, SCO....
Gawd help us. Anyone else notice that Word just kept getting worse and worse with each release since, oh....Word 2.0?
What a spin! It's the opposite. Many said the choice for ODF was about open source software instead of open formats, but the call for an MS ODF filter shows that they want to use Office, but need it to be able to write to their chosen open format.
Use OpenOffice.org. It will cure you of your need to run MS Office.
And it's 99.99% compatible.
So MA ask for a plugin to get a closed source application to keep to their standards (presumably so they can keep using it) and they are favoring opensource?
LOL!! Check your link--I've Been Healed!!
LOL! I mispelled it. Try OpenOffice.org instead. It should help you with your immediate need better... :)
NB4GE
Indeed. What the heck are they bitching about?
I can't wait to see the MS-suckup spin on this one.
IBTT
Well, wanting an open document format seems quite reasonable, so calling it a "bias" is kind of like saying I have a "bias" for breathing air.
Seems to me they're being quite reasonable in trying to get proprietary packages set up to use the open formats so they can continue buying them. What's all the fuss?
< snicker >
Basically, they're bitching because somebody figured out how to avoid being stuck on their upgrade-treadmill business model. If you use an open document format, your data can't be held hostage by any one vendor.
Saying that people have a "bias" in favor of open formats is like saying that they have a "bias" in favor of freedom. It's not a "bias", it's a rational preference.
This attempt at astroturfing might be too absurd for even Tweety Bird to defend.
Why then all the whining about needing another format no one else can read? We obviously don't need it, and if you're actually that compatible you obviously don't either.
Why all the whining from MS and you shills when it's been proven a plugin for Office could've been produced in two days?
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