I have read this thread with some interest - particularly as I am
about to start working for a company that is targetting Microsoft in
both the OS and desktop/application environment.
Whilst I can understand that an organisation will want to publish (and
receive) information in formats compatible with its current
environment, I do have some problems with an Australian government
department apparently requiring people to go and buy a
specific commercial product in order to even *read* a significant
tender document.
Whilst Microsoft appears to have convinced significant portions of the
Australian government that Microsoft is the only possible solution to
all computing needs, this is not the case.
Whilst it may appear reasonable to expect anyone tendering to be able
to go out and buy Corel Draw and MS Office (and the necessary OS on
which to run these), such an assumption on the part of government is I
believe essentially dangerous due to its implications in terms of the
'closed mind' (or group think) syndrome that has been the subject of
another fascinating thread.
If a government requires a particular computing environment in order
to READ a tender document, what chance is there that it may receive
tenders which recommend something completely different?
Government information (both in and out bound) should be commercially
neutral if at all possible. To do otherwise could well lock the
government into a position of excessive expense!
For those that are interested about 'alternative' environments, you
might want to look at what Fermi Lab is doing... see
http://www.fnal.gov/cd/unix/linux/
Robert Hart hartr@interweft.com.au
Voice: +61 (0)3 9844 2422 http://www.interweft.com.au/
PGP info at http://www.hart.wattle.id.au/hartr/pgp.html
InterWeft, 82 Yarra Street, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113, Australia
Information Technology Consulting