Revisiting two recent posts, IE7 and Religion as Software: what role does Internet Explorer 7 play in the religion as software analogy? After throwing it about a bit it has occured to me that a comparison with the Reformation fits reasonably well. Firefox has nailed its 95 theses (make that 101) to the door of the cathedral and Pope Bill III has decided to stop selling indulgences (and start selling security). The Reformation (eventually) led to the possibility of a whole host of religious freedoms in Europe; the Open Source Reformation will lead to interoperable file formats that will then give us true platform independence and therefore, crucially, choice. How long before Microsoft Word supports the Open Office XML format?