Comments on: Fight Microsoft Monopoly – Use Google

By: Boyd

Boyd — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:41:11 +0000

Microsoft recently released SP2 for the Office suite, which includes automatic, native support for ODF, the OpenOffice document format.

Just in case anyone hadn't heard.

By: Andre Kenji

Andre Kenji — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:38:58 +0000

Hey, Excel is the only MS product that is REALLY fine!

By: jabberwock

jabberwock — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:05:15 +0000

OpenOffice is the way to go!

By: odograph

odograph — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:32:21 +0000

It was a major error and change for the government to go "product based" rather than "standards based."

With a file standard, government departments and individuals could exchange data while using their personal choices for viewing and editing.

(MS definitely muddies the waters on this, with open formats that aren't really.)

By: Ramki

Ramki — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:54:03 +0000

Yeah, Matt did convert it to Google Docs, which is the easiest way to share files online.

His recommendation for the government is to use OpenOffice - which is different from either of these "oligopolies," because it is based on an open standard. In other words, the format is open for any one to write a reader for it, effectively preventing ANY oligopoly from emerging for that format.