Microsoft Opens Office Source Code to Governments

They want the headlines, but they're not paying attention.

Microsoft doesn't get it.

If I'm spending billions in public funds to put data in a format, any format, that data better be useful in the future, period. This includes when Microsoft goes out of business, or when they make Office XQ-2019 $10k per seat.

I can read the damn Declaration of Independence without paying Parchmentsoft a $400 royalty.

So here's what they have to say:

It is what we call a reference grant and allows customers to look at the code and use it for debugging of custom applications. But they may not modify or redistribute it," he said.

Right, so Microsoft still owns the data you put in, but you can write all the VBA you want to lock yourself into their monopoly even more.

That's not what anybody wants, and it doesn't help. Shame on you, Microsoft.

Microsoft Opens Office Source Code to Governments