Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

David Berlind has a massively detailed account of how Massachusetts decided to exclude Microsoft's Office products from the list of apps acceptable for purchase by the state government. He's got the back and forth, the in and out, the he-said/she-said of the whole deal, with careful considerations of the claims and counterclaims. It's a must read if you care about open source and the future of Microsoft.

One important conclusion:

In fact, one important point that has so far gotten no attention in the coverage of the Massachusetts decision is that the door is actually still open for Microsoft's format's get back on the list. In a telephone interview, CIO Quinn made it clear that if Microsoft fixed its patent license to meet the state's requirements, the state would reconsider the Office XML Reference Schema for inclusion in its standards. "We would support multiple formats as long as they're open" said Quinn. "If Microsoft were to do that, I would expect that we would add it to the list."