A Set of RFI Responses for Sherlock Holmes

Andy Updegrove writes "In early May, Massachusetts issued a 'Request for Information' on plugins that could help ease the transition from a Microsoft Office based environment to one relying on ODF compliant software. Now the seven responses received have been posted by the ITD: six from vendors large and small — and one from Microsoft that purports to be informational, but in fact gives no information beyond what is already publicly available. Like everything else in the ODF saga, many of the responses are as much political as technical, with some delivering off-topic messages, one (from the ODF Foundation, strangely) refusing to disclose much at all, and several contradicting each other on the technical challenge of working with Office absent further code disclosures by Microsoft. All in all, they make for an intriguing read on multiple levels — offering more of an Easter egg hunt than informative offering. It will be interesting to see which, if any, of these offerings the Mass. ITD decides to utilize."

Comments

Wow.

[Rob T Firefly]

After reading all that, I suddenly have a new appreciation for our mod point system. Maybe Massachusetts should have submitted their request to "Ask Slashdot."

Open?

[neonprimetime]

Then there is the ODF Foundation's response, which somewhat surprisingly (to me, at least) begins awith the following Q& A:

1. What is the present state of efforts to create ODF plug-ins or converters for Microsoft Office, whether undertaken by respondent or others through projects with which the respondent is familiar?

This information is available under the terms of a confidentiality agreement.

I guess in the land of Microsoft, an open door and a closed door are the same thing.

Behind closed doors...

[SpecTheIntro]

Like everything else in the ODF saga, many of the responses are as much political as technical, with some delivering off-topic messages, one (from the ODF Foundation, strangely) refusing to disclose much at all, and several contradicting each other on the technical challenge of working with Office absent further code disclosures by Microsoft.

Conversation between ODF advocates before they submitted their responses:

"Ok, let's see here... cryptic response?"
"Check."
"Stick something in there about penguins?"
"Check."
"Refuse to reveal any actual information?"
"Yep."
"Awesome. Finish it up with something about Bill Gates eating babies, and send it out."
"You got it."

Mod parent...something.

[Anonymous Coward]

(-1, MustBeNewHere)