Massachusetts twists in the wind
Well, will they won’t they? It appears the governor’s office may have welched with this statement:
“The Commonwealth is very pleased with Microsoft’s progress in creating an open document format. If Microsoft follows through as planned, we are optimistic that Office Open XML will meet our new standards for acceptable open formats.”
The “progress” referred to is, of course, MS’s as-yet-unsubstantiated promise to submit some of the XML formats used in Office to the international standards board.
In response to the government’s actions, there were rude words about a Massachusetts Democrat from a (different) Massachusetts Democrat…
So, we found out who’s the Senator-mouthpiece for Microsoft in the [legislature]’s debate over the state moving to document types that aren’t owned by a single, monopolistic company. It’s Marc Pacheco [a Dem], ostensibly of Taunton, but he’s doing a better job of representing Redmond, WA.
…but a more thoughtful reply from LXer:
Although I admire Massachusetts for standing up to Microsoft and supporting open standards, I think that in their rush to be the first state to snub Microsoft they missed many important details to have a successful transition.
All this comes as IBM pledges further support of the much-maligned ODF.