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New Hampshire Passes 'Open Source Bill'
Plugh writes "In a victory for transparency and openness in government, and saving tax dollars, New Hampshire has passed HB418. State agencies are now required by law to consider open source software when acquiring software, and to promote the use of open data formats."
Havent we had enough of this nanny-state rubbish? Affirmative action for software... Political correctness gone mad.
Meta-rant: Why do people post worthless "lazy comments" asking for examples when Google already provides them? Look up a damn example yourself, and offer a counterargument if you really want to advance the discussion.
But enough of that - I will offer you the real-world challenge: Write your resume' with Office, especially using an Office template. Be sure that template looks nice and pretty, with plenty of formatting. Fill it.
Now open it with OpenOffice. Aww, what's the matter, did all your perfectly placed stuff get all messed up and spill over into the next page? Does your once-good-looking resume now look like a freshman computer science major's blind, botched attempt at a rich-text editor? Now, without making any changes to the document, save it while opened in your favorite open source document editor. Then, open that same document in Word. Looks like shit, don't it?
As much as we hate to admit it, MS Office formats are still the most widespread in business and government. Any changes toward open source must embrace true interoperable, open source-friendly formats as well.