The state of Massachusetts has laid out a plan to switch all its workers away from Microsoft's Word, Excel and other desktop software applications, delivering what would be one of the most significant setbacks to the software company's battle against open-source software in its home market.

The decision by one of the most populous states in the US could influence others which have yet to consider the issue, said Sam Hiser, an open source consultant and author.

The state said yesterday that all electronic documents "created and saved" by state employees would have to be based on open formats, with the switch to start at the beginning of 2007. Documents created using Microsoft's Office software are produced in formats that are controlled by Microsoft, putting them outside the state's definition.

In a paper laying out its future technology strategy yesterday, the state also specified only two document types that could be used in the future - Open-Document, which is used in open source applications like Open Office, and PDF, a widely used standard for electronic documents.

The switch to open formats such as these was needed to ensure that the state could guarantee that citizens could open and read electronic documents in the future, according to Massachusetts - something that was not possible using closed formats.

The proposal, which is open for comment until the end of next week before it takes effect, would represent a big boost for open source software such as Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge.

Like Linux, an open-source operating system that competes with Microsoft's Windows, OpenOffice is widely used in some emerging countries, though it has limited use in the US, said said Mr Hiser.

Microsoft has already taken steps to head off the threat from moves like the one proposed by Massachusetts, applying recognition from a technology industry standards body for recognition of its own formats as open standards.

However, the new formats, due to be used in the next version of Office, which is expected to come out late next year, would still include some proprietary elements, and are specifically excluded from the Massachusetts proposal.

The Office suite of software, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, produces about 30 per cent of Microsoft's revenues and 40 per cent of operating profits.

Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e8fc5cce-1a85-11d...000e2511c8.html

Meh, Microsoft really needs to start working on advancing its products. I only have two problems with MS:
1. Ignorant to the competition (IE is the biggest example.)
2. No new ideas.

Yeah, my dad has gotten three different versions of office over the years, and personally I havnt been able to notice any significant changes.

Sounds sexy. Office is cool, but the my state is wasting alot of money on slightly better versions that are almost completely useless =P (though they're a version behind) The only Open Source piece of software this state ever had was back when Netscape was Open.

if they were ignorant to teh competition, they wouldn't need to make an ie7 and it would probably not have tabs

If they're doing this to be anti-microsoft, then crud. MS is actually good in my eyes as they provide my favorite OS.

If they are, and you have MS stock, I'd sell sell sell.

I don't think MS was ever ignorant to the competitions (look at all of the bought out companies and OS software built by teens) They just never took any real action when they couldn't buy out a company =P

I wouldn't think so. Buying out a company is a temporary solution, but you can't keep doing that. Some time or another someone won't sell, and then Microsoft is screwed. They need to make their products compete with the competition. Otherwise, MS is cool. Oh, and Word is too... have I ever told you its the thing I use to create all my websites? All of the images... logos, everything - MS Word.

Really? Funny XD. I remember when I first heard MS Word had HTML capabilities, I was like OMG OMG WTF?

I find that Word uses a lot of redundant tags that slow down the pages a little bit.

I find that Word is always very redundant. Once I had a 12-page essay with like 10 pictures, none of them bitmap, and it took more than 30 megs. Now what exactly would take 30 MB in that?

I've never Word for anything other than reading files though. I use Microsoft Works Word Processor to type my stuff >.< (A step down maybe, but smaller filesize...)

I don't use the HTML part... I just use autoshapes, mostly. And WordArt. Also, Word's 3D abilities are very good. It's just frustrating how long it takes to put something exactly in its place...


Works doesn't have autoshapes...

I'm not much for autoshapes. I don't need anything more than a word processor.