The Massachusetts Office Party 731
Quattro Vezina writes "The Inquirer reports that the state of Massachusetts has performed a modern-day Boston Tea Party, by dumping Microsoft Office in the proverbial ocean. According to the article, 'every state document must be in PDF or using Open Office formats' starting in 2007." Forbes has the story as well. More from the article: "The switch to open formats such as these was needed to ensure that the state could guarantee that citizens could open and read electronic documents in the future, according to Massachusetts - something that was not possible using closed formats. 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 such as Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge."
Re:PDF? (Score:3, Informative)
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/acroba
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Xpdf-415
Groklaw coverage (Score:5, Informative)
This was also covered on groklaw [groklaw.net], yesterday.
"Your fly is open" formats. (Score:1, Informative)
It's also a "boost" for PDF too. But let's not draw too much attention to that fact. Seriously "open formats" aren't the exclusive province of Open Source.
Re:Guaranteed Availability in the Future? (Score:5, Informative)
Open Office formats are zipped XML. All you need to get at the data in them is an unzip program and a text reader. It's a good way to "guarantee" that anyone can view them in the future.
Re:Guaranteed Availability in the Future? (Score:5, Informative)
If the formats documentation is not available, you are pretty much at mercy of whoever invented it, and their willingness and ability to provide viewers and conversion tools.
Re:Guaranteed Availability in the Future? (Score:2, Informative)
Also, using something like open office lowers the barrier to entry for those wishing to read the documents. If a user can use cheap hardware with free software then a larger proportion of the population can access the data.
Re:Ironic (Score:5, Informative)
The pretext of the BTP was to protest the imposition of import taxes, it had nothing to do with opening up the market to American tea traders.
Re:PDFs? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:PDF? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"Your fly is open" formats. (Score:5, Informative)
I wish the media would understand that there is a difference between Free Software and Volunteer-Developed Software. There is overlap between the two groups, but they are by no means identical.
[1] Of course, this didn't really happen, because we all know Sun are evil and out to destroy all open source software.
Re:So, which will MS Office support? (Score:5, Informative)
Who created it? (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, it was created by a bunch of paid programmers in Germany. It has been maintained, enhanced, and extended by volunteer programmers.
And I love it!
Funny, but.... (Score:5, Informative)
However, less-astute readers should remember that the OO.o formats are well-documented & any other program can easily write an implementation to spec.
They are also XML files, which can be understandable in plaintext. This means many people don't even have to bother looking at the spec to extract useful information.
So why the gobblygook? Look at that "PK" at the beginning of the string. That indicates that it is zipped. Rename the
Microsoft Office Open XML Formats (Score:2, Informative)
Check it out: Microsoft Office Open XML Formats:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/fileoverv
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Opens_O
Office Viewers (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?F
Hell the viewer is faster than opening acrobat by a long shot too.
Re:PDFs? (Score:2, Informative)
MS Office Open XML File Formats (Score:1, Informative)
Re:PDF? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php [foxitsoftware.com]
http://www.planetpdf.com/ [planetpdf.com]
I've only used Adobe's reader.
I have used a free pdf maker, and it worked fine.
Re:PDF? (Score:2, Informative)
The format isn't made for heavy editing of files, it is meant to be an archival format for finished documents. The big thing now in the business world are these high speed, networked scanner/copier/printers that can save the scans in PDF. In fact, "PDF" is quickly becoming a verb.
To navigate through the document faster, just use the thumbnail mode...it's just like using a microfilm reader, without the film.
Re:Acrobat Reader? Ugh... (Score:3, Informative)
In particular:
- On Linux, ggv will open PDF documents quickly and very happily, and they didn't need to reverse engineer anything or infringe patents to do it. It's free.
- On Windows, there are viewers that aren't Acrobat.
- OpenOffice on all plaforms can output PDF. No $400 license needed to generate the PDF.
- Scripting tools: GhostScript can be used for the batch generation or batch printing of PDF files. GhostScript is free. Our customers regularly send us thousands of print jobs - usually as PDF, which we run through gs, which is available for many platforms including Windows and Linux.
- There are lots of automatic tools for generating PDF on the fly, such as HTMLdoc (a GPLed tool, which is available for Windows, Linux, Mac etc. and includes a GUI).
- The Macintosh by default can create output from ANY program as PDF, because you can print to PDF. There are similar print drivers for Windows.
You don't need to pay Adobe any money to read, generate or manipulate PDF files. It's an open format. Many programs can do it. It's only those who know of nothing outside of a Microsoft catalogue who think it's different.
Re:PDFs? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Office Viewers (Score:2, Informative)
Even if there was one, we would still be depending on Microsoft not changing its mind and removing it. Let them open their format if they want to be used this way.
Re:Microsoft Office Open XML Formats (Score:1, Informative)
And encumbered with a patent to protect their "intellectual property" and make it illegal for you to implement your own viewer and view your own documents. Once MS decide to stop supporting their format with the only viewer in the world that is allowed to view them, you are still screwed. You are still stuck at MS's whimsical mercy, but legally rather than technically.
Re:Whilst I applaud this move ... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Guaranteed Availability in the Future? (Score:4, Informative)
While it's true that standards change over time, the fact that there would be an open standard means that a document could be successfully reconstituted (all standards include version information). Requiring an open document storage option means that even 5 years after a standard has gone the way of the dodo, a developer such as myself could still recreate the document if needed.
This is not true of
Re:As a Massachusetts Resident (Score:1, Informative)
Of course, since the rapture is coming "any day now", the current federal deficit won't be a problem.
Re:PDF? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I love it, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, of course. They're presumably already hard at work.
But in the long run, this is a rather good idea for the state. Remember that state agencies send out a lot of things that are legal notices, and there are consequences to ignoring them.
Consider a scenario:
1. Citizen C gets notice N from state agency A. It's in a format that doesn't display properly on C's computer, or displays in a garbled form that is easily misunderstood.
2. C doesn't do what N requires, because C can't read N.
3. A files suit against C for noncompliance.
4. C demonstrates in court that he/she couldn't read N because it was in a proprietary format not readable on C's computer.
5. The court decides for C and orders A to pay court costs.
6. On appeal, the court orders A to also provide C with a Windows machine so that C can read future notices.
Microsoft is now in a good situation to sell a lot of machines in the state. However, every citizen is now filing for a state reimbursement on the price fo their computer. The courts uphold these reimbursements on the grounds that the machines are necessary to read state notices.
Wonderful for Microsoft. Not wonderful for the state.
Anyone with a grain of sense would want a law to the effect that state notices be readable by the recipient without purchasing any specialized equipment. Sensible government admins would already require this of their employees. This doesn't prevent computerized documents; it only requires that documents be in formats that all computers can display properly. Plain text, HTML and PDF all work fine.
Re:Taxachusetts (Score:3, Informative)
What's even funnier is people parroting right wing propoganda. Observe the top ten states for taxing their residents as documented by CNN/Money:
And where does Massachusetts rank? Way down the list. Tied with the liberal sewer pits of Georgia and South Carolina:
30 Illinois 9.80%
31 Georgia 9.80%
32 Massachusetts 9.80%
33 South Carolina 9.70%
34 Virginia 9.70%
Source: http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/taxesbystat e2005/ [cnn.com]
But why let facts intrude on your right wing talking points?
xpdf on win32 (Score:3, Informative)
Long In The Making (Score:3, Informative)
This event has been long in the making. Massachusetts established an "Open Source Public Trough [zopezen.org]" over a year ago, and many of its more prominent regional web sites had been using and/or advocating open source since before then (see this recommendation [saugus.net] or Guide to Free Software [saugus.net] for just a couple of examples from my home town) and of course Massachusetts was the only state not to cave in regarding the court case against Microsoft.
For locals, this isn't surprising. What's more surprising is that it took so long.
Re:Is this really about open standards? (Score:5, Informative)
Readability/Openness of XML (Score:3, Informative)
There are others with bad implementations [muohio.edu] of XML, so that even though they don't obfuscate or patent-encumber them, interoperability is painful.
But OO.o XML is fine.
Re:As a Massachusetts Resident (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Taxachusetts (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.pacificresearch.org/pub/sab/entrep/200
http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15303 [heartland.org]
Notice how the liberal states have economic environments that are the most likely to screw poor people out of higer wages and opportunity. So it seems to me the sales tax rankings were selectively chosen to promote an dishonest liberal bias
Re:I love it, but... (Score:2, Informative)
Page 18 of the PDF:
...so Jan 2007 is when existing apps must be replaced. Newly bought stuff will have to be compliant from now (more or less), as you suggest. A year and a quarter for the complete migration of a state government bureacracy isn't unreasonable...
I
Re:Not quite (Score:2, Informative)
Of course, until 2007 is more than enough time for MS to add OpenDocument support if they'd risk losing too much.
Re:Come on now ... (Score:5, Informative)
Not true at all, at least not in Masachusetts.
There are a number of agencies that send out things like tax and license notices via email, if you've registered to receive them that way. If you don't pay, you will eventually get that registered-mail notice. But if you do pay, that email becomes your only notice. It's a real convenience for us computer-literate types, and saves the government a lot of money. It's been years since I've received a hand-delivered government notice. Some things still arrive via first-class mail, but very often the email/web approach has handled it already.
They can get away with it legally, because such "pre-notice" messages aren't the legal notices; they're just a convenience for the taxpayer.
But we've had problems with government web sites that are only tested, and only render sensibly, with IE. Some downloadable docs are only in MS-Word format. Again, this is legal, because you aren't forced to use them; you can always use the hard copy. You can take a day off work, drive downtown to the agency, and pick up the docs you need. Or you can buy a Windows machine and download the Word doc, saving yourself a day off work and lining Bill Gates' pockets by another (to him) small amount.
There are those who think that it's not quite right for the government to be in bed with a major manufacturer like this. It's not a new story, of course; that's why the Boston Tea Party is brought up. Look up the history of that event. It's not an exact parallel, but it's close enough for media reports.
I don't have it. (Score:4, Informative)
The Adobe PDF printer you're seeing was added by a third party application, probably some flavor of Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional. I don't know what other Adobe products also add a PDF printer driver. Photoshop might, and I'm pretty sure Illustrator does as well.
No, it's not part of Windows XP, and the only way to (legally) get it is to buy the necessary software from Adobe.
Some demo versions of Adobe software may have a bug that results in the PDF Printer remaining behind after an uninstall, or after the demo expires. That could be another way you got the option.
But no, the rank and file Windows XP users do not have a PDF Printer available by default in either the Home or Professional editions.
Re:"Open Standards" (Score:1, Informative)
There are LOTS of open source readers for PDF that work well.
Re:makes no sense.. (Score:2, Informative)
It's not whether a home user can open the file easily today. That's irrelevant. It's whether it CAN be opened at all if the company providing the free viewer stops providing that free viewer. In 25 years, will you be able to find a viewer to open word97 docs? It's doubtful.
OpenDocument, however, is an open format. It's plain text. Anyone can read the text by unzipping the file and opening the text up with any text editor. Because of this, it doesn't matter what happens to Sun (the company developing StarOffice/OpenOffice).
As long as ASCII or Unicode is still around, you could still open an OpenDocument file and read the text, even if it's 500 years in the future and Microsoft is only a footnote in some dusty old history book.
Re:it seeems to me ... (Score:2, Informative)
Since when do you have to shell out big bucks to read MS Office documents? MS itself provides free viewers for all their formats.
Furthermore, the next version of MS Office will have open formats.
Please provide some evidence of this. I frankly don't believe it for a minute. While the upcoming Office file formats will be XML based, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the format will be open. Unless I've missed the boat entirely (which is certainly possible), it's my understanding that the "open" XML documents will contain lots of binary information understandable only by Office and decidedly not open.
Also, since when is open source a guarantee that a file format will be around forever? It seems to me the opposite is true.
If that's the way it seems to you, then you aren't thinking too clearly. Open source definitely guarantees that a file format will be around forever because the source will be around forever. In the absolute worst case, you would need to find a dusty old version of the app in question, and compile it yourself. However, I can't see how that worst case could ever happen since I'm assuming that the document format would be open as well as the application source. Think about it for a minute. If the source code of the application that produces and consumes the documents is open, then how in the hell would the document format be closed?!
It seems to me like Massachussett's decision is based more on politicking than anything else.
I suspect that this could very well be true, but I don't have enough first hand knowledge of the situation to come to any definite conclusion.
how to comment on standard (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.mass.gov/Aitd/ [mass.gov]
open formats - government statement (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.mass.gov/eoaf/open_formats_comments.ht
Re:PDF open? (Score:3, Informative)
Same way that Java is "open". The specs have been published so that anyone and their family pet can create and/or render PDF. e.g. GhostScript.
The PDF Spec... (Score:3, Informative)
...is open, it was postscript that was license encumbered (IIRC). There exists a multitude of programs that can read and write PDF's.
OpenOffice.org can export to PDF. Evince, gpdf etc. can read them. There are also third-party libraries that output PDF documents (some written in pure PHP, such as FPDF [fpdf.org], which wouldn't be as probable without specs.
This is old and only partial story. (Score:1, Informative)
*(MS is the same thing as M$, for those of you who never read anything but slashdot commments.)
Re:AéîLsJ? (Score:2, Informative)
Unfortunately, when the original poster pasted it into the web form, the non-printable characters weren't included. You'll have to get a