The Open Document Format (ODF)
Alliance has closed ranks with the European Commission against
Microsoft in support of open document standards.
Last week, European commissioner Neelie Kroes reiterated the
commission's policy of supporting products that support open,
well-documented standards as a critical component of
interoperability.
The commissioner for competition policy warned against the harmful
effect of government lock-ins to proprietary software, in a
thinly veiled attack on Microsoft's Office productivity suite.
Kroes said, "As purchasers, we need to be smart when we buy
technology. We need to be aware of the long-term costs of lock-in:
you are often locked-in to subsequent generations of that
technology.
"[The European Commission] must not rely on one supplier, it
must not accept closed standards, and it must refuse to become
locked into a particular technology - jeopardising maintenance of
full control over the information in its possession."
Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, which
promotes the ODF standard and open-source software in general,
said, "The end is near for the era of public information being
locked into a closed format.
"ODF, with its status as the only internationally recognised
open standard document format with a wide range of supporting
applications, is a critical tool for governments to help end the
era of lock-in."
Microsoft's latest Office suite will eventually offer ODF
support, but not until next year at the earliest.