With this in the background, it was interesting to me to run across this article this morning, How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In, by Cory Doctorow about how the combination of Vista and MSO will exacerbate lock-in to MSO's file formats (and a whole lot beyond that). It has always been my feeling that one of the greatest threats sitting out there to the free(er) flow of information and the ability to use alternative solutions was MS'es ability to implement digital restriction management (DRM) in the corporate world (most likely via their MSO applications). Unlike the consumer world where so many users put up with DRM as an annoyance (at best), ala iTunes/Apple, in the corporate world there are going to actually be users who want to implement DRM. Given the installed base of MSO users, I see it as being very easy and tempting for companies to go the MSO upgrade route instead of looking for other alternatives as their attorneys advise them to lock down everything and MSO is an easy way to do it (especially when combined with Vista and Trusted Computing as Doctorow explains).

Of course, I suppose this will give me an opening as people start implementing Vista and the new MSO. When I can't open their files to work for them, I'll be able to advocate for them to switch to something like OpenOffice.org. The biggest challenge will be getting the State of North Carolina to follow the lead of Massachusetts (and many parts of the rest of the world) to require files to be made available to the public in open formats. Guess I'll call my representative.