Some didn't buy the story that Microsoft was pounding on Florida to get ODF out of the Legislature's minds and consideration. Fair enough. It was a bit dicey that the lawmaker tried to slip in the open standards language on the sly (though, unfortunately, it was probably par for the course). Today, however, the Wall Street Journal has an article that details Microsoft's state-by-state efforts to quash legislatio Some didn’t buy the story that Microsoft was pounding on Florida to get ODF out of the Legislature’s minds and consideration. Fair enough. It was a bit dicey that the lawmaker tried to slip in the open standards language on the sly (though, unfortunately, it was probably par for the course).Today, however, the Wall Street Journal has an article that details Microsoft’s state-by-state efforts to quash legislation that would hurt its ability to keep file formats closed. Open the door to Microsoft file formats and you open the door to Microsoft’s gold mine. It started with Massachusetts, but the trend continues….Lawmakers in other states haven’t necessarily recommended ODF over Open XML. But Microsoft clearly sees the spread of ODF as a potential result of their proposals. In a document Microsoft lobbyists left with Dr. Homan, the company played down the “minority of voices” arguing specifically for ODF. Open XML, it argued, is a “more robust” option. According to Mr. Veasey, in the proposed Texas bill, “We really wanted to stay away from choosing one format over the other…. We went out of the way to bring Microsoft in to seek their input in drafting this legislation.” Ultimately, however, “they said they thought it was favoring ODF” and declined to lend their support, he said…. The impetus for the Texas bill was similar to that in other states — a desire to ensure access to archived and current documents regardless of which company’s application is used to open them, and lower costs. “If the state could have these companies compete against each other, it would save taxpayers millions of dollars,” Mr. Veasey said.It’s not that Microsoft is against saving taxpayers millions of dollars. It just doesn’t want them to save that money at its expense. Hence, the ongoing attempts to strangle any legislation that puts Open Document Format on equal (not superior) footing with Microsoft. And that is a problem. It would be one thing if Microsoft were fighting efforts to put open source/open standards on a superior footing. But it’s trying to keep ODF from even receiving equal treatment. Dr. Horman (the Florida legislator) is right when he suggests:Microsoft sees what’s coming. Things like Word and Excel are sort of like a drug now getting ready to go generic.With 97% market share in the office productivity suite market, it’s understandable that Microsoft would feel threatened. Understandable, but not laudable. Open Source