The Massachusetts Office Party

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The Massachusetts Office Party

Posted by Zonk on Thursday September 1, 2005 @01:10AM from the we-all-saw-how-the-first-one-went dept.

Quattro Vezina writes "The Inquirer reports that the state of Massachusetts has performed a modern-day Boston Tea Party, by dumping Microsoft Office in the proverbial ocean. According to the article, 'every state document must be in PDF or using Open Office formats' starting in 2007." Forbes has the story as well. More from the article: "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. The proposal, which is open for comment until the end of next week before it takes effect, would represent a big boost for open source software such as Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge."

8 of 731 comments (clear)

In the grand tradition... by Altima(BoB) · 2005-09-01 01:14 · Score: 4, Funny

...Hopefully they did it all while wearing festive penguin suits, or for the politically correct Bostonians, Spheniscidae American suits.

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Yup...
Format Specifications (Reference) by LiquidCoooled · 2005-09-01 01:15 · Score: 4, Funny

PDF

and

Open Office XML

Strangely, both say you need Adobe reader to read them ;)

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liqbase :: faster than paper
AéîLsJ? by loggia · 2005-09-01 01:23 · Score: 4, Funny

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1. Re:AéîLsJ? by Demerara · 2005-09-01 01:37 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  from the comment:
  
  Ê KáÓÝ "%abIpOEYÙ%zè-"z ða*×ÇØ~)Ä"E,...E,? eûK tj--(TM)¼x2YK©~z ÃbÉ3R ý^£è "ÅÃdíYMC9CMY ÑsO¼
  
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  Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
2. Re:AéîLsJ? by StopSayingYouSir · 2005-09-01 01:41 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Ah, good to see that the lameness filter is doing its job!
Re:As a Massachusetts Resident by saider · 2005-09-01 02:27 · Score: 5, Funny

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

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Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
Re:As a Massachusetts Resident by schon · 2005-09-01 02:56 · Score: 3, Funny

Umm... didn't they invent the orgy? :o)
Re:Taxachusetts by Tachikoma · 2005-09-01 02:56 · Score: 3, Funny

And where does Massachusetts rank? Way down the list. Tied with the liberal sewer pits of Georgia and South Carolina:

In your post you listed Illinois as 9.8, Georgia 9.8, Mass. 9.8 and SC at 9.7
So technically, by your own numbers Mass. is tied with Illinois and Georgia, yet you failed to insult Illinois. They are a state too, and deserve to be spit on by all other states too.

In the future, please always remember to insult Illinois.

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i don't care