ODF Threat to Microsoft in US Governments Grows

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 4, 2007 @05:19PM from the cropping-up-everywhere dept.

Tookis writes "Another setback for Microsoft has cropped up in the space of document formats in government organizations. The state of California has introduced a bill to make open document format (ODF) a mandatory requirement in the software used by state agencies. Similar legislation in Texas and Minnesota has added further to the pressure on Microsoft, which is pushing its own proprietary Office Open XML (OOXML) document format in the recently released Office 2007. The bill doesn't specify ODF by name, but instead requires the use of an open XML-based format."

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Re:Define Open by Excelcia · 2007-03-04 17:42 · Score: 5, Interesting

According to Andy Upgrove, the Netherlands essentially were bought out by Microsoft like ANSI was. If Microsoft is successful in getting ISO approval, this California law will essentially get read in as a "Thou shalt use Microsoft Office" law.

While I hope ISO doesn't ratify OOXLM, the cynical side of me doesn't have a whole lot of hope.