In a world where more and more users are relying on their software to 'play well with others' (read: Web 2.0), the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) wants to remove Office 2007 from all schools in the UK because it isn't interoperable with software from other vendors (source).
I don't think it can be disputed that Microsoft Office is the best productivity suite available. The competitors (OpenOffice, NeoOffice, AppleWorks, GoogleApps) can't hold a candle to the depth of features available in Office. The latest version, 2007, has a great new interface and in my opinion - from the user interface perspective - is a significant step forward.
The argument BECTA, and many, have had against Microsoft (not just recently, but seemingly for all time), is that they claim their tools operate on standards, but in fact they aren't standards decided by "the people", they're the standards defined by Microsoft.
So the question is: should the standards of what tools we teach our students be defined by the vendors, or by commissions like ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission).
Comments
Perhaps this will appease BECTA, at least in regards to Office 2007: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/05/21/ms.office.supports.odf/
Personally I loathe the new "ribbon" interface that Microsoft has implemented into Office 2007. It's pretty, but the layout is not intuitive. Maybe it's just me, but I can comprehend text easier than I can comprehend hieroglyphics.
As one of our x-employees used to say: "the battle of tastes will never be won". Personally, I find the Office 2007 layout much improved! :)