Still reeling from Masschusett’s decision to switch to open formats (the OASIS OpenDocument format, in this case), Microsoft’s Alan Yates writes a whiny and very wrong letter, which I can summarize as follows: “Hey! I’m a twit!”
Newsforge has a pretty good breakdown and refutation.
Alan Yates’ public letter reveals many chinks in Microsoft’s armor and shows his company’s lack of fitness, and unwillingness, to compete on a level pitch. This is a letter of arrogance and deliberate misdirection. In it, Yates expresses his warm concern for the citizens of The Commonwealth, his grave misgivings about the appropriate use of their tax dollars, and his fond hopes for their future felicity with office software — his Office software. The citizens of The Commonwealth surely never encountered this kind of deep feeling from Microsoft before, not while that company charged its rates for software which it never intended — and today has no means or intent within its business — to support. His statements betray a jaundiced view and fear of free markets, and resonate with circular logic and disinformation about open standards and OpenDocument in particular.