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Massachusetts set to switch off Microsoft

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Refalm:
Financial Times / 1 september 2005 01:58

Massachusetts set to switch off Microsoft

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

(...)

”I think it would be pretty risky for the state of Massachusetts to go in a direction like this without a clear look at the costs first,” said Alan Yates, general manager of the Office division at Microsoft.

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 like Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge.

(...)

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HPC GUY:
now all hilarity will ensue when the state of washington does this.

Kintaro:
I think this is a wise move.

Refalm:

--- Quote ---”I think it would be pretty risky for the state of Massachusetts to go in a direction like this without a clear look at the costs first,” said Alan Yates, general manager of the Office division at Microsoft.
--- End quote ---

Let's look at the clear costs:

--- Quote from: PriceGrabber ---Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 (Full Product)
$141.99
--- End quote ---

vs.

--- Quote from: OpenOffice.org ---OpenOffice.org (...) office suite (...) the product is free to download, use, and distribute.
--- End quote ---


There are numerous companies that will give cheap training in any software packet, including OpenOffice.org.
So even with training, a company saves on costs.
That $142 for Microsoft Office 2003 is actually for home users, a company payes a price per year to legally use Office in the entire building.

Kintaro:
Yes but currently training in OpenOffice will be more expensive, however I feel this will change.

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