An interesting story broke in the Financial Times (FT) last night while I was having dinner with a some journalists who cover open source technology. The State of Massachussetts has not only been quite active in supporting and encouraging open source software, now they've introduced a directive that would require 50,000 desktop computers used by State employees to abandon Microsoft Office in favor of standard compliant alternatives such as Open Office and Star Office. This is pretty bold step. They don't want to be locked in to proprietary file formats. From my discussions with other government IT organizations, it's a pretty common sentiment. People are sick of the lock-in from closed source vendors and their hardball negotiation tactics. So maybe Massachussetts is playing a little hardball of their own. Good for them!
There have been similar proposals and actions taken by federal, regional and municipal governments in Europe, Latin America and Asia in the past, mostly in promoting Linux, but this is the first such effort in the United States. My guess is other governments will look to see how Microsoft handles this. At the very least it should give governments some additional thoughts and insight into open source, as well as some badly needed price pressure.
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