Microsoft Corporation Message Board
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German Gov promotes Linux
Germany, IBM Strike Linux Deal
At Expense of Microsoft Windows
By BRANDON MITCHENER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL
The German government Monday is expected to announce a partnership with International Business Machines Corp. to promote Linux and other so-called open- source software in the German public sector -- largely at the expense of Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Windows operating system.
"Linux currently presents the best potential alternative to Windows, and therefore to greater heterogeneity in software," Otto Schily, the German Interior Minister, said in a statement prepared for release Monday.
Governments world-wide have been promoting a shift from proprietary software such as Windows to open-source products such as Linux. They argue this not only saves money, but reduces their reliance on a single corporate software provider and helps avoid compatibility problems when people use non-Microsoft products ...
"We increase information-technology security through the avoidance of monocultures; we reduce our dependence on individual software companies; and we save on the software purchase and upkeep," Mr. Schily says.
online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1023047405969887040,00.html-
Europe pays $9 billion a year to the monopolist and Germany pays at least a third of that.
The more you pay a monopolist, the more you will pay in the future. Now with a good Office suite available, it's time to boot the monopolist where it hurts most.
BTW, StarOffice has been number 1 on Amazon Germany for the last 3 weeks. MSFT Office Std or Professional do not even feature in the top 100 (but Office for Students does at #16). Neither does the Office Std. or Prifessional Upgrade. Suse Linux is in the top 5 and 6 paces ahead of MSFT XP home edition. MSFT is losing out to its Open Source competition in Germany. It is the shape of things to come all over the world.- 1 Reply to Curiouser_and_Curiouser
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MSFT Office is way too expensive!
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1023047405969887040,00.html
It seems to me that MSFT products do not meet the needs of a government organization for the following reasons:
1) Undocumented document formats. The nuts and bolts of file formats for ducuments need to be specified in public documents.
2) Undocumented computer networking protocalls. How the computers network needs to be spelled out in detail. This is needed for interoperability.
3) Security risks. Spy-ware in the media player, hidden revision history in word documents... All these things are security leaks.- 1 Reply to broncoincalifornia
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All of your reasons are Microsoft hidden 'Features'... They are designated to work for best interests... Microsoft's interest that is.
More European states will dump Microsoft over Linux; especially when there are more alternatives being available; such as OpenOffice, etc...
King Gates has no feet; he has shot himself his own foot too often lately.
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