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Microsoft could get the boot from the French government if a new recommendation from an official advisor is adopted.
DISIC (Direction interministérielle des systèmes d'information et de communication de l'État) has recommended that French authorities ditch Microsoft Office tools in favour of the Open Document Format (ODF). DISIC is responsible for harmonising and reducing the costs of all state computers, including government ministries, state and regional departments and local authorities, and sees ODF as the best way to make them all interoperable.
According to sources, an initial draft of the report envisaged outlawing Microsoft's Open XML altogether, although with some agencies using tools specifically developed for use with Open XML, DISIC relented.
However, the final version strongly encourages the phasing out of Microsoft's ware in favour of ODF.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @12:52PM
I don't think this is a way to get more licenses or else it wouldn't have been pushed through so aggressively.
This appears to be an agency with it's head very much together, microsoft is a creation of a (hostile?) foreign power, and it doesn't work for shit with ANYTHING else.
The ms .doc format was mutated during competition to remove its ability to be easily read, this maneuver made it untenable for most operations that require interoperability.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @01:58PM
Translation: Proprietary software to squeeze more money out of your pocket into M$ piggybank.