Norway again

I know, I know, but they really are the bomb, I tells ya!

From Slashdot:

Norway has become the latest European country to move closer to mandatory government use of ODF (and PDF). According to a press release provided in translation to me by an authoritative source, Norway now joins Belgium, Finland, and France (among other nations) in moving towards a final decision to require such use. The Norwegian recommendation was revealed by Minister of Renewal Heidi Grande Roys, on behalf of the Cabinet-appointed Norwegian Standards Council. If adopted, it would require all government agencies and services to use these two formats, and would permit other formats (such as OOXML) to be used only in a redundant capacity.

Interesting stuff. I'm a big fan of open source. I run Linux at home (I'm typing this on a new distro as we speak, actually; Elive. It's pretty and fast), and my work computer is chockers with great, free programs like VirtualDub, 7-Zip, Foxit, and many many more.

I'm surprised it's taken governments so long to realise the millions of dollars that can be saved with open source. IBM has known it for ages, and I've heard on the grapevine that they're developing their own Linux OS to replace Windows on all their computers.

Whilst I don't think the Open Document Format is perfect for end-users yet, I think its time is fast approaching, as I do for Linux distros in general, which are getting more and more user-friendly every day. I'm not Mr Technical myself, and I haven't had too many troubles.

What this spells for software companies is anyone's guess. One thing is for sure; those profit margins are going to start sliding, maybe even until they're commensurate with development costs. Most hardware companies faced this point in the face of great competition many years ago. I'm looking forward it, actually, especially because I believe the open source movement cares a lot more about standardisation than the private sector.

The more I do online, the more I come up against the importance of standards (try building a website that looks the same in Firefox and Explorer. I dare you.). This will definitely be a good thing for innovation, and development of the web in general.