Microsoft will adapt to win back Massachusetts, predicts pundit

Jon Udell at InfoWorld predicts that Microsoft will get round the Massachusetts OpenDocument decision, which could restrict the use of Office in the state, through one of two outcomes :

One possible outcome : Microsoft Office gains support for the OASIS OpenDocument format, either from Microsoft or from the open source community. Another outcome : Microsoft tweaks its Office XML licensing to conform to the definition of openness that governments are rightly insisting on.

Moreover, “When the format debate is over, some critical issues will emerge from the fog. From my perspective, for example, both Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer are archaic solutions to the real needs being articulated by the likes of Massachusetts and the European Union. Both are conventional applications that, whether free or not, impose a heavy download, installation, and support burden on the people who use them.”

A mere fraction of the power of these multihundred-megabyte behemoths suffices for basic communication, writes Udell; the rest is overhead. Software delivered as a service through the Web ~ simple, lightweight, and universally available ~ is clearly the better way forward.

[Source: InfoWorld]