OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice Release Candidates Duke It Out

Helios, it certainly has distressed me considerably, but with hindsight, I guess I personally am not surprised at all. Australian Governments (in general) still believe (despite crashes, security problems, instability, cost, etc. etc.) that the sun, moon and stars shine out of Redmond and that Windows is the only operating system available that will satisfy their requirements. Therefore a Windows advocated format must be the best there is - it really is as simple as that.

Part of the problem is that massive software structures running on Windows only have been built for our Federal Government, and it would probably be enormously costly to change....For instance the enormous Pharmaceutical system links into every doctor's surgery and every pharmacist store; the ATO has taxation software, again only for Windows. You have to be grateful if a particular government website has not been designed only for IE......I struck that a couple of days ago.

But to return to Microsoft Windows and Governments, I have had personal experience in trying to penetrate the "wall of death" with which Microsoft has protected its software investments in Australian Governments. The IT departments within the various state and federal governments are all run or advised by people who are absolutely dedicated to Microsoft and they ensure that nothing of the FOSS world ever penetrates the minds of the various Departmental Ministers - they don't want to confuse them with an alternative.....Documentation is carefully sanitised so that even if "Linux" as a world actually appears, it is hedged by negatives so that it simply doesn't get a look in.

And these Microsoft "moles" are definitely in place, and get rewarded after making sure that the "right decisions for Microsoft" have been made by the relevant IT section in charge of future directions in computing. One of them became the state director of Microsoft for Queensland - the documentation is amazing when you see it. Microsoft is terrified that Australia might find out about Linux and this is now a no-holds barred area. Indeed, I believe our cousins across the Tasman in New Zealand are more advanced with respect to Linux than we are.

Last but not least, Linux is certainly penetrating Asia and that is one of our biggest markets. We could live, as the Chinese say, in interesting times if we don't start investing in open document formats and in Linux at Government levels, but Microsoft wouldn't like that, so for the moment it certainly won't happen.

The reply from John Sheridan sounds a little contrived. Even if it's the simple truth, it demonstrates a simple fact, the Australian Government is a follower, not a leader.

Quoting: i Liam, I am the First Assistant Secretary at AGIMO responsible for this policy.

The new policy does not prefer one vendor over another. It recognises, following extensive consultation across portfolios, that over 99% of government PCs currently use the ECMA-376 standard. This standard has not been chosen exclusively – agencies may also use other formats if they desire. However, to ensure commonality across government, this first iteration of the policy requires that agency desktop environments must be able to read and write ECMA-376. If, over time, due to changes in usage, technology or preferences, another standard is required, the policy can be amended to accommodate such a change.

Readers may also note that this part of the policy affects the manner in which documents are exchanged between agencies. The requirements for accessibility (discussed at some length on our blog) mean that documents available to the public through government websites, etc, are published in alternative formats to ensure the needs of citizens are met. These formats typically include HTML, PDF and RTF.

Additionally it's clear that no attempt has been made to determine whether or not a Free Spftware solution can be applied, and in the process save the australian people a sum considerably greater than the $51 Million this man claims his department has saved the Australian Taxpayer (by purchasing Microsoft Licenses at a bulk rebate price)

Clearly there is no attempt at leadership, nor thought for the future (Australia's Future that is). They have simply canvased current software usage, and mandated that based on current usage, that which Microsoft products support is what must be supportable, very neatly making Microsoft products mandatory, in spite of the claims that they do not mandate Microsoft products.