Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on October 08, 2005 12:32 AM
You argue our point for us. Simply read what you said with the right perspective:
"mandates a certain type of software" (MS Office) "for no other reasong than to satisfy the political interests of a few" (Microsoft)
Of course Microsoft would like to imply that there was no "mandate" for MA agencies to use MS Office but there was a de facto one before MA finally looked at their situation in the long term and decided that maintaining everything in paper was not feasible and maintaining data digitally is not practical with encumbered and ever-changing formats that are controlled by "a few."
This is not a mandate about "a certain type of software." It's a mandate to guarantee access by the people of MA to their own data, now and two centuries hence.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
The few: MS, the Lock-in: Office
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on October 08, 2005 12:32 AMYou argue our point for us. Simply read what
you said with the right perspective:
"mandates a certain type of software" (MS Office)
"for no other reasong than to satisfy the
political interests of a few" (Microsoft)
Of course Microsoft would like to imply that there
was no "mandate" for MA agencies to use MS Office
but there was a de facto one before MA finally
looked at their situation in the long term and
decided that maintaining everything in paper was
not feasible and maintaining data digitally is
not practical with encumbered and ever-changing
formats that are controlled by "a few."
This is not a mandate about "a certain type of
software." It's a mandate to guarantee access
by the people of MA to their own data, now and
two centuries hence.
JimD
#