New Microsoft battle over document formats
Seattle PI | at | by Mike
The Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts, and now the state is firing some opening rounds in a revolt against Microsoft that seeks an open, proprietary-free format for storing electronic documents.
Gov. Mitt Romney's administration has directed state government's executive offices to begin storing new records by Jan. 1, 2007, in a format that challenges Microsoft's market-dominating Office software, which isn't yet designed to support the new standard.
Massachusetts is the first state to take the step, but others are closely watching the fight.