On Sun, 8 Jun 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Sunday 08 June 2003 22:42, Stanislav Malyshev wrote: > > Government decision that all schools should use OpenOffice would also cost > > the taxpayers (maybe less) and lock out the competition. The only visible > > difference is that "we" win and "they" lose. That's OK, but speaking in > > these terms and speaking about public benefit and freedom in the same time > > doesn't sit well. > > OK, you are right, so let's define it in matters which REALLY matter, for > instance, define it in terms of the document format: The format must be > completly documented and open (i.e. its definition cannot be changed > at will by some closed interest group, but by some open standards body). > > As a government, I think there is some obligation to them to put out a tender > and choose the best option, where money must play a part. Even if they choose > MS at the end of the process - the format will still have to be open and > they'll probably have to pay less for it (see, for instance, the slashdot(?) > item about how Lindows resellers get MS products for 50$). > > Would that be practicle and satisfy the requirement you described above?
Yea, But the EU beat you to it. they stardart working on a promoting a format like that a while ago, and in the end it suppose to become the official EU format for goverments. If I remember right they are now working on something based on openoffice's XML file format. I think the URL of the project was send to the list few times before info can be found also in the openoffice mailing list dedicated to the file format. Ely ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
