Massachusetts wants freedom from Gates

With the high cost of MS Office why would any one be upset if a state government chooses to save money in the long run. The state of Massachusetts has finalized a proposed move to an open, non proprietary format for office documents, a plan that involves phasing out versions of Microsoft's Office productivity suite deployed in the state's executive branch agencies. Massachusetts expects its agencies to develop phased migration plans away from productivity suites that do not support OpenDocument, with a target implementation date of January 1, 2007.While a number of government agencies across the world have expressed plans to drop Microsoft and other proprietary products in favor of open-source and open-standard technologies, Massachusetts is the first major public-sector institution to do so in the United States. I am sure their going to use open office, StarOffice, KOffice, and IBM Workplace. Keep in mind that Microsoft Office 2003 Pro cost $159- $499. Is it right to stay with something because its what your use to. You know the saying “better to deal with the devil you know than the one you don't know”. Microsoft has made it clear that they make the rules they set the price and that you must go into debt to have their products. In the short term, yes, there will be some growing pains, but have we as Americans got so spoiled that at the first sigh of hard ship we turn into baby's. Massachusetts is with in its rights to walk a way from a product they feel screws them out money and I think they should be given a pat on the back.