Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

The French Want to Ban .doc and .xls Files From Le Gouvernement

posted by janrinok on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the mais-oui dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket found the following story a day or two back:

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.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The French Want to Ban .doc and .xls Files From Le Gouvernement | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 40 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @04:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @04:51PM (#213522)

    I personally have never paid for a copy of Office. Yet I use it every day.

    Why?

    Because everyone around me does. File formats are like viri. Once a *key* person starts using it everyone else has to follow.

    If I gave up my files in odf format I would be 'the weird guy who doesnt like docx files'. Personally I do not care. It is a tool I use to get my job done. MS Office is one of the best office drone productivity suites out there. That my company says 'use this' does not hurt me much either. I could switch but then it would be weeks of 'where is this stupid button' 'where is this stupid short cut'. Then what do I get on the other end? The *exact* *same* *thing*. That is a waste of my time.

    Also all of the MS formats are text files. The are disguised zip files. Unzip them you will find a few blobs of XML that contain your files.

    In the end mostly things like this are about money. Someone wants a discount and balked at some crazy multimillion dollar bill MS was trying to hand them. I dont blame them. Office has not been updated for 3 years it didnt somehow become millions of dollars better. 365 looks like a treasure trove of 'let the hackers at my stuff'. I am sure MS tried to push 365 on them and the when 'oh hell no'.