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Texas Legislature Considers Open Document Formats

Posted by kdawson on from the rising-tide dept.

An anonymous reader notes that a legislator in Texas has introduced a bill to require open document formats in all state government business. The bill is carefully worded such that only ODF could pass its test as "open." The story is covered by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which is careful to be even-handed, giving Microsoft's spokesman equal time. A ZDNet blogger notes that the bill, introduced by a Democrat in a state whose politics is dominated by Republicans, faces chances that "...fall somewhere east of slim and west of none."

7 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. The best line.. by Thelasko · · Score: 4, Funny
    of the article was:

    Detractors counter that the bill is anti-competitive.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  2. Re:Lock-in for an open format? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    George W Busch was the best President we ever done had, a good god fearing Christian man. God bless his soul

  3. Republican's fault. by CannonballHead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hm. It's the fault of the republicans I guess. Evil conservative types, wanting lock-ins. Definitely a republican problem. If we had more democrats in Texas, we would have more open standards! Just look at California, New York, Washington... look at all those open standards being used by those states! And democrat-liking Hollywood! Hollywood is a huge "open source," open document, non-DRM fan. What we need to do is legislate open formats, that way private companies can't be standards incompliant! That will fix the free market, private enterprise will flourish, etc.

    [/sarcasm]

  4. Re:You can just imagine... by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...mighty herds of MS lobbyists swarming...

    And a glint in the sky to the northwest as the Ballmer shagadellic jet wings its way south, a fresh load of office chairs fixed to the hard points and Ride of the Valkyries blasting out of the built-in Big Zune sound system.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  5. Betamax over VHS by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 4, Funny

    The main argument, advanced by a Microsoft lobbyist, is that the bill is anti-competitive, and would be "like choosing Betamax over VHS."

    Wasn't Betamax the better of the two, and VHS only won because of porn? How does that analogy make any sense?

    1. Re:Betamax over VHS by Samschnooks · · Score: 2, Funny

      The main argument, advanced by a Microsoft lobbyist, is that the bill is anti-competitive, and would be "like choosing Betamax over VHS."

      Wasn't Betamax the better of the two, and VHS only won because of porn? How does that analogy make any sense?

      Allow me. You see, most of the free online video players are available for MS Windows. What's the reason for online video? Porn. That's the only reason why folks use Windows is for porn. Therefore, all of us Windows users are degenerate porno viewers.

  6. Let's see Microsoft win this one! by E.+Edward+Grey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go right ahead, Ballmer. You can bribe those oily Europeans until they're shining your car, but I dare you to budge the courageous and independent public officials of Texas! They cannot be bought and will stand tall against oh my god who am I kidding here open document formats are doomed.

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    ---don't make me break out my red pen.