senator responds on ODF

[dan at geer.org (dan at geer.org)]

Tom,

The legislators won't think about this much,
which sort of astounds me in such a leftist
state (You have to buy Microsoft Office to
read state documents!  Call the Red Guard!),
but that seems to be the way it is.

Microsoft, clever as always, suggests that
allowing competition is a good thing, that
it is standards that should compete not
products.  Yeah, right -- let's let 110V
compete with 207V right here in my living
room, or US Std pipe threads compete with
SAE threads in my bathroom, or those who
want to drive on the left side of the road
with left-hand drive cars can compete with
the competing mirror standard.

I say this with the personal experience of
having had Kerberos done by my team on my
watch and then seeing how Microsoft embraced
and extended the standard to the point that
if you wanted to have platform independence
in a mixed environment you had to use a
Microsoft Kerberos Server.  Remember, if
you are in Redmond it is a "standard" when
it can the customers into your revenue stream.

I have a hard time not sputtering,

--dan