1) Not everyone can afford Microsoft Office and Not Everyone has it. With the crackdown on pirated software and the cost involved for purchasing a retail license of Microsoft Office is $150.00. That is alot of money.
2) Not everyone has Windows. There are a lot of people out their that don't use Windows. Windows may have the most market share for operating systems but it should be a requirement to apply for a job online not with Today's Technology.
3) Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer doesn't comply with web standards and restricting people to an insecure, obsolete browser is not safe and is bad technology policy.
I believe Governments should be using open source software such as Ubuntu, Suse, Fedeora, and other varieties of Linux and BSD/Unix technologies. For one reason it keeps the cost down, you don't have the huge licensing issues of running Windows or Mac OS. With everything being moved to server (cloud) based applications, all you need is a browser. Most of the Free Operating Systems come with Open Office Pre-Installed so you don't have to purchase Microsoft Office and 99% of the time Open Office is compatible with Microsoft Office Formats.
Now I'm not being Anti-Microsoft here, there are some things Windows will have to be used for, such as some cad programs, graphics, etc, but for word processing and spread sheets Open Office should be able to handle most if not all the work load. As for the thing that set off this little blog post of mine the Job Submission for Alberta Health Services, I will be trying to get in touch with someone to get that fixed. They are discriminating against anyone that doesn't use a Windows based machine and that's just wrong.
