They just don't get it...

It is quite obvious that some folks are just too close to Microsoft to be able to sniff the coffee. Take for example this article from Fox News:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170724,00.html

The thing that gets me the most is the lack of real thought put into that article. It seems that folks would rather continue with the status quo - which Microsoft is fine to see happen - than to take a moment or two to explore - as the IT folks in Massachusetts did - alternatives to continue paying for software that makes you dependent upon the good graces of a company to enable you (the author) and everybody else (the readers) to have access to the documents created by said proprietary software. The switch to the OpenDocument standard allows you to keep your rights as the author of the document without worry that some software manufacturer will take away or limit those rights; and allows software makers to create new software, or modify and expand existing software, to work with this STANDARD for documents. Since Microsoft wants to continue pushing their own document format (that continues to change every few years, isn't backwards compatible with previous versions, and does not have any plans to have published document format specifications open to everyone) regardless of any published, open standards - much as MS has done with every other standard designed to open up competition in software by setting a level playing field - and refuses to play nice with others. Instead, the Microsoft PR engine has geared up to fight with its usual arsenal of FUD and willing media shills.

More later...