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Massachusetts Adopts Open Standards Strategy
prostoalex writes "The state of Massachusetts at a meeting of state information officers adopted a broad-based strategy to move to open standards. The strategy does involve Linux among other open standard solutions, while moving away from Microsoft-based platforms is one of the decisions. State Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss insisted that decision was made on technical grounds and had nothing to do with antitrust investigation of Microsoft by the state of Massachusetts."
BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts, the lone holdout state still suing Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) for antitrust violations, will become the first state to adopt a broad-based strategy of moving its computer systems toward open standards, including Linux, the rival operating system to Microsoft's Windows.
State Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss said Thursday that the decision, adopted at a meeting of state information officers, was made on "technical grounds" and had nothing to do with Attorney General Thomas Reilly's pursuit of Microsoft.
In the technology industry, the term "open standards" refers to nonproprietary software. Microsoft's software is considered "closed" because application developers and other programmers don't have free access to the blueprints.
Kriss said the state's decision was driven by a desire to reduce licensing fees but also "by a philosophy that what the state has is a public good and should be open to all," Kriss told The Associated Press. He characterized the decision as the "most visible concrete action by a state government" to move toward open standards.
A Microsoft spokesman had no immediate comment.
Microsoft is facing increasing challenges from Linux, which has been developed over the past decade by a global community of programmers who share their work on the condition that it be redistributed freely. It has become appealing to cost-conscious companies looking for an inexpensive means to run their servers.
Government agencies from Germany to France to Peru have adopted or are considering Linux-based software as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft products.
Most government bodies have no choice but to move away from closed source, propietary standard solutions. They have an obligation to keep public records available for very long periods of time. (READ CENTURIES). Theres no way they can live with periodic knowledge meltdowns from propietary providers going under or the occasional platform shift.
Microsofts methods of locking your data to their apps will ultimately be seen as intolerable.
The reporter unfortunately slanted the story as MS vs Linux. The state says it chose "open standards, including Linux" -- which seems to imply that it's closed standards that are taboo. If they're talking about file formats, network protocols etc. it is of course the sensible thing to do, since you're not vulnerable to losing your documents if the program is no longer supported, and you're not compelling everyone you communicate with to use exactly the same software as you do. Big difference between this and saying that they're only going to use Linux, which makes it seem as though they're retaliating against MS.
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
"In the technology industry, the term "open standards" refers to nonproprietary software. Microsoft's software is considered "closed" because application developers and other programmers don't have free access to the blueprints."
Proprietary software can also adhere to an open standard. The idea of an open standard is an open interface (file format, API, etc.) that allows sw for various vendors to interoperate. This way you don't even need to see the source to write complementary or competing sw, you just need the spec. Open standard and open source are not synonymous, although the former is a subset of the latter.
Vote for Pedro
Remember governments get to tax companies, so money for companies == money for govt.
Not exactly true in this case. I work for the state of Massachusetts and I know that the state spends a lot more on Microsoft products than they take back in from Microsoft. The only return for Mass is the 5% sales tax when someone buys windows or office.
And don't forget NO ONE is shorter sighted than an elected official. If the entire state government switches to open source tomorrow it will have no impact on taxes before the next election. In a few years perhaps, but not any time soon.
- MacOS X (sort of, since it's based off BSD)
Mac OS X is _very_ standards based. It goes way beyond BSD. Think about it, Apple has support for 802.11x, LDAP, Kerberos, PDF, IPv6, L2TP, the list of acronyms goes on and on.
Massachusetts has the second highest per-capita income in the US @ $37,710 (only CT is higher, at $41k, and NJ is a few hundred bucks behind; NY rounds out the top 5), which does distort the taxes per income.
One thing to remember are that Massachusetts has, IMHO, the most intelligent tax code in the country (flat income tax and a limited sales tax at basically the same rate).
Another factor is that Massachusetts is the only wealthy state with a near-Californian devotion to direct democracy (and the fact that we can actually govern ourselves in turn says something, I think, about the relative intelligence of California and Massachusetts, but that's neither here nor there). The main effect of this, with regard to taxation has been the 2.5% law which limits the rate of growth in property taxes to 2.5% per annum while providing a means for that to be overridden if necessary (an annual referendum or town meeting is required to sustain an increase). Recent referenda to reduce the state income tax to 5% from 5.95% (successful) and abolish the state income tax (got 47% of the vote) have and continue to keep the General Court and the Governor of the Commonwealth on their toes.