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Massachusetts Finalizes OpenDocument Standard Plan

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the easier-than-quitting-smoking dept.

wellington map writes "The state of Massachusetts has finalized a proposed move to an open, nonproprietary format for office documents, a plan that involves phasing out versions of Microsoft's Office productivity suite deployed in the state's executive branch agencies. Massachusetts expects its agencies to develop phased migration plans away from productivity suites that do not support OpenDocument, with a target implementation date of January 1, 2007. Looks like it's finally cemented after some heated discussions."

1 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. spin alert by cahiha · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Microsoft has one goal, and they are amazingly focused on it: make profit. For a cool extra few billions, wouldn't you "admit" that your software development processes were bad 18 months ago but are now much better?

    So, the part of this message is "our development processes have improved, we have rewritten Windows, it's amazingly bug-free now, and it's completely new". Of course, those claims are ridiculous: nobody turns around an organization the size of Microsoft in 18 months, or rewrites Windows in that time.

    There is a kernel of truth to this story: they probably are trying to improve their development processes. But the rest is marketing spin, designed to convince you to shell out bucks for an operating system release that gives you almost nothing new.