[StopGlobalWhining]

If the federal govt simply shifted to .rtf and .pdf formats exclusively for text documents, that'd be enough to level the proverbial playing field.

I don't get it. ???

[NativeNewYorker]

MSFT's application monopoly rests upon its proprietary .doc format for text files. If the document machinery at the federal govt began to simply set .rtf or .pdf as default formats, so any text or acrobat file reader could open the files, folks would no longer be forced to have a copy of Office on their machines.