Massachusetts Dumping MS

[G Gambill]

"The state of Massachusetts has laid out a plan to switch all its
workers away from Microsoft's Word, Excel and other desktop software
applications, delivering what would be one of the most significant
setbacks to the software company's battle against open-source software
in its home market.

The decision by one of the most populous states in the US could
influence others which have yet to consider the issue, said Sam Hiser,
an open source consultant and author.

The state said yesterday that all electronic documents "created and
saved" by state employees would have to be based on open formats, with
the switch to start at the beginning of 2007. Documents created using
Microsoft's Office software are produced in formats that are controlled
by Microsoft, putting them outside the state's definition.

In a paper laying out its future technology strategy yesterday, the
state also specified only two document types that could be used in the
future - Open-Document, which is used in open source applications like
Open Office, and PDF, a widely used standard for electronic documents.

The switch to open formats such as these was needed to ensure that the
state could guarantee that citizens could open and read electronic
documents in the future, according to Massachusetts - something that was
not possible using closed formats."

<http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e8fc5cce-1a85-11da-b7f5-00000e2511c8.html>