Massachusetts Goes for Open-Formats!
Over the next 16 months the State of Massachusetts will be migrating to open file formats! This is something I have been an advocate for a long time now and I am glade to see something of this magnitude taking place. Now if we could get more governments and business to open their eyes and follow suit.
If this quote I found in an eWeek article on the news doesn’t sum up what I have been saying for years I don’t know what does…
CIO Peter Quinn said that “government is creating history at a rapidly increasing rate, and all documents we save must be accessible to everybody, without having to use ‘closed’ software to open them now and in the future.”
Absolutely awesome!
The bottom line is this; ONLY Microsoft products will EVER be able FULLY view and manipulate files LOCKED in Microsoft PROPRIETARY file formats!!! No matter how much they try to claim that their latest and greatest office suite versions have ever increasingly openness due to XML there will ALWAYS be hidden bits or binary sections which will not allow you to use the application YOU want to.
Be a friend and use open file formats! If you use Microsofts file formats you are FORCING everyone you want to read or manipulate your files to use Microsoft’s products.
I have said it before and I will say it again here. All open-source office suites should jump behind the OpenDocument file formate. OpenOffice.org/StarOffice, KOffice, and Abiword have already started to support it. If everyone demanded open file formats Microsoft could either fully support the OpenDocument formats or be left behind! Their is nothing stopping Microsoft, or WordPerfect for that matter, from adding OpenDocument support to their products…it is, after all, an OPEN standard.
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