Microsoft is once again in the race to supply government agencies in the
state of Massachusetts with its Office productivity suite, the state's governor
has said.
The state was threatening to
disqualify
Microsoft as a software supplier to state agencies because it failed to
support open standards in its Office productivity suite. Starting in 2007, the
state requires that all newly created documents use open standards.
Advertisement
Microsoft, however, last week unveiled plans to
submit
its
Office
Open XML file format to the
ECMA standards body.
If the state follows through on its plan, it could set an important precedent
for other governments and give added momentum to Open Office, an open source
application backed by Sun Microsystems that uses the Open Document Format.
Microsoft's move has drawn some criticism from open source activists, who
consider the proposed opening of the standards 'less open' than ODF. The
company, among other things, will retain ownership of the intellectual property
covered by the standard.
Sun Microsystems, in response to Microsoft's promise to open its format, sent
an open letter to Massachusetts secretary of state Thomas Trimarco that points
out that, so far, Microsoft hasn't actually opened the format.
"It [would] be a mistake to rely on a single vendor’s promise to submit a new
product to a standards body at some point in the future,"
wrote Carl
Cargill, Sun's director for corporate standards. "The Commonwealth [of
Massachusetts] owes no less to its taxpaying citizens."
The standard first has to be approved by ECMA and until then can't be
considered open. Sun also claimed that the state should look at the degree of
openness – such as developer participation and the level at which multiple
developers can participate in creating the standard – before it made any
decision.
The letter urged the state to pressure Microsoft into supporting the Open
Document Format because it’s the only way to prevent vendor lock-in in the
future.
In the past Microsoft has said that it won't support ODF because the standard
lacks compatibility with older Office documents and is missing features.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article