Mobile linux news

2008 08 28

Buy Microsoft, Gets Sued

Quebec government sued for buying Microsoft software

Quebec's open-source software association is suing the provincial government, saying it is giving preferential treatment to Microsoft Corp. by buying the company's products rather than using free alternatives. The lawsuit by Facil was lodged with the Quebec Superior Court on July 15 and made public on Wednesday. In it, the group says the provincial government has refused to entertain competing bids from all software providers, opting instead to supply public-sector departments with products bought from proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle Corp.

http://s5h.net/u?zf986
Recent: The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons

Misapplication of “value for money” requirements when purchasing software results in poor value for money - Government purchasing policies for software tend to support the creation of monopolies. Government purchasing has effects on the price paid by citizens for the product purchased. In some cases purchasing produces volume which permits scale discounts and therefore a net benefit to citizens who also purchase the product. However, in the case of lock in software* Government purchasing can create a monopoly in the software which leads to increased costs for citizen purchasers and a net detriment for society as a whole. It is not appropriate for value for money policies to be assessed on a per acquisition basis when software is being acquired. Doing so will almost certainly create net costs for the community when considered in the aggregate. [...] Government procurement can both create and reinforce a monopoly in goods and services which it is acquiring. Anecdotal evidence suggests that bureaucrats look at “value for money” type formulae and assess it against the cost to Government on a purchase-by-purchase basis. This approach is fine in respect of goods and services which are easily substitutable (such as hammers, screws, cars etc). In respect of goods which are specifically designed to prevent substitutability - eg devices which are not designed to be interoperable it is an extremely hazardous approach. If those goods also tend to be a natural monopoly (such as software in general, but particularly that which is designed not to be interoperable) this approach is absolutely the wrong one.

http://s5h.net/u?z6f3b1
Interview with NOiV's Maarten Wijnen-Meijer on Study on Gov't Acquisition of OS Software - Pick Your Brains

A Dutch study has recently been translated and published in English, "The acquisition of (open-source) software", by Nederland Open in Verbinding (NOiV), which finds that in Europe, gratis software does not require tendering and so gratis Open Source software can be freely downloaded without having to go through the usual purchase process. If service is required, that service would, however, require going through the normal purchasing process, but as a separate matter.

http://s5h.net/u?z40bcb
NL: Use of Open Source software requires no European IT tenders

European public administrations that want to use software that is offered for free, such as Open Source software, do not need to organise a call for tender. [...] According to Wijnen-Meijer the translation is well-received. "At a recent Open Source conference in the US, copies were picked up quickly by companies. We also have had requests from cities and ministries in Germany and Greece."

http://s5h.net/u?z5633
Related: My Visit to Sun

Phipps went on to say that one of the main reasons prospects and customers are uncomfortable with this open source approach is that it fails to align with their expectations of how software is obtained. They're so accustomed to the bid/procurement process accompanied by the stereotypical sales rep proffering half-truths about the product that they literally feel anxious when offered the gift of free software. Furthermore, they're so used to an adversarial relationship with sales reps that they are bewildered about how to respond to a sales approach that is more collaborative and focused on user satisfaction, which is, of course, a prerequisite when what you sell is support.

http://s5h.net/u?z9f2e8
UK Government: Closed Minds on Open Source

To its eternal shame, the UK Government uses far less open source than most. Worse, it seems to have a closed mind to the whole idea. That's evident in the guidelines that have been released to aid in the interpretation of amendments to Computer Misuse Act (CMA) of 1990 with respect to “unauthorised access to computer material” (aka cracking)...

http://s5h.net/u?z5ee7
The UK has wasted over $4 billion on failed IT projects since 2000

The Guardian is reporting that the United Kingdom government has flushed over £2 billion (More than US$4 billion) since 2000 on failed IT projects. IT projects fail. [...] And imagine if before the UK government went into these projects if it's cost of failure was hugely mitigated upfront by zero licensing costs and the chance to fully evaluate technology before adopting it. It's called open source. Heard of it?

http://s5h.net/u?z8e76
Lawmaker blasts U.K. government on Microsoft policy

"A member of Parliament of the United Kingdom has launched a stinging attack on the U.K. government's IT strategy, saying that it has given Microsoft too much control. John Pugh, who is a member of Parliament, or MP, for Southport and a member of the Public Accounts Committee, was speaking in an adjournment debate on Tuesday that he had called. The aim of the debate, he said, was to explore the alternatives to using Microsoft software, including open source."

http://s5h.net/u?z7aba4
Open-source evolves from 'nerdy' to notable

Last January, Host Europe, a company that runs the Web sites for 120,000 businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, secured an unlikely supplier for the open-source software it uses to run almost all of its computer servers. [...] "I think that the adoption of open source has been much greater in some of the Continental markets and in the United States," said Mark Brier, an open-source technician at the National Computing Center in Manchester, England, a nonprofit group that advises government on computer purchases. "Here there is no large-scale adoption." Scott Thompson, the executive director of OpenAdvantage, a nonprofit group in Birmingham, England, that promotes open-source software among businesses in the West Midlands region, said the spread has been limited by outmoded government procurement rules that favor larger, established proprietary vendors, government outsourcing of technology operations to companies with relationships to proprietary vendors, and the well-funded defense of proprietary software makers.

http://s5h.net/u?z3217
Bundestag: "Open-source strategy is not in jeopardy"

In April the Linux Association had smelt a rat with regard to the exchange tests and sharply criticized the manner in which the administration of the Bundestag awards contracts. We cannot "help suspecting that with the help of the Council of Elders the IT strategy of the administration of the Bundestag is being manipulated in a manner that excludes the technical departments," the association had declared at the time. A spokesman of the administration had replied that all procurement acts relating to the pilot project had taken place in conformity with the rules laid down for the awarding of contracts.

http://s5h.net/u?z46fe1
Feds revise IT procurement model

The federal government has launched version two of the SourceIT model contracts and user notes aimed at simplifying procurement of information technology 12 months after the first version.

http://s5h.net/u?zf56b
Governments slammed for anti-competitive software tendering practices

A leading Australian open source advocate has called for an end for to tender lock-outs of competitors to Microsoft, claiming the practice is costing Australian taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year.

http://s5h.net/u?z9460