IBM's support for OpenOffice.org is important

Microsoft Office is one of the principle reasons why so many businesses feel like they are locked into using Microsoft Windows. While I support the rights of Microsoft as a business to try to lock people, companies, and governments into using their proprietary data formats, and thus their software, it is also the rights of people, companies, and governments to fight back for their own best interests.

Proprietary data formats are a losing proposition for users. The lack of assistive technologies for people with disabilities has been a sticking point for wider adoption of OpenOffice.org - IBM's donation of the time of 35 engineers to work on assistive technologies is a large contribution to both open source and the infrastructure that so many of us build our businesses on.

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