Submitted by Minnesota and Texas may become the next US states to adopt the OpenDocument Format as the required standard for their agencies, thanks to two state bills currently up for vote. The Minnesota Preservation of State Documents Act, if passed, would require that all documents ‘including text, spreadsheets and presentations’ of the state be created in ODF. The XML-based document format is a rival to Microsoft’s Office technology.
It only seems appropriate that an ISO certified standard file format be used by government. Lets hope these bills pass, forcing Microsoft to naively support ODF opening the office playing field for all users.
forcing Microsoft to naively support ODF
Did you mean naively or natively?
Good call, I wish my brain would spell natively. I meant natively but it seems that the edit has timed out. I guess that is why re-reading comments before submission is a good thing
(for some reason aspell doesn’t seem to have ‘natively’ in its dictanary, maybe that was the issue.)
Nor does it have ‘dictionary’ in its dictionary, apparently.
Lets hope these bills pass, forcing Microsoft to naively support ODF opening the office playing field for all users
Actually this is only one option and from most people’s point of view the better one.
Another option, and likely from Microsoft’s point of view the better one, is to circumvent the spirit of the law but following its letters: by pushing even harder for their format to become an official ISO standard.
Very true. My guess is we can start expecting Microsoft to start greasing the pockets of many politicians to keep OpenDoc out.
Kind of a side thought here, but I always get a chuckle out the government. One day they sue Microsoft for being a monopoly and not playing fair. The next day they tell you that their websites are only compatible with Microsoft IE or that they only accept Microsoft Office document formats.
I’m sure OpenDoc will have a fight on it’s hands trying to supplant Microsoft’s document format.
Note that OpenDoc died a horrible, painful death at the hands of Steve Jobs in 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDoc
ODF, on the other hand, is alive and well.
I forgot about that. In the future I will stick to ODF.
What’s that? Is it a bird? A Plane?
No, It’s Microsoft! And what’s that? They’ve suddenly grown a great interest in the law making process? Why that’s great; We need all the help we can get!
Perfect government accountability. 🙂
The XML-based document format is a rival to Microsoft’s Office technology.
Actually, the ODF format is an ISO approved international standard, and microsoft’s confusingly named format is rivaling ODF. Although microsoft tries to turn its proprietary “Open” XML format into an open/international standard, it is not. See;
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007011720521698
– hayalci