U.S. Justice Dept. Chooses Corel over Microsoft 390
peg0cjs writes "The Justice Department, which challenged Microsoft Corp. in courtrooms for nearly a decade over antitrust violations, will pay more than $2 million each year to buy business software from Corel Corp, according to this article from CANOE. 'The Justice Department will make WordPerfect software available to more than 20 organizations inside the agency, but not the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration, which use Microsoft's Office business software exclusively, said Mary Aileen O'Donovan, a program manager in the Justice Management Division.' According to the article, the deal is worth up to $13.2 million over five years for Ontario-based Corel. Has sanity finally set in, or is this just a blip in Microsoft's dominance in controlling government software decisions?"
Damn Lawyers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:open office? (Score:3, Insightful)
While I wouldn't discount Open Office, $2 million to outfit such a large bureaucracy as the DoJ sounds like chicken feed. Heck, I've been places where we spent more than $2 million dollars, per year, for only about 1,000 people. (Intial outlay is high, then upgrades and service keep you bleeding.)
How Does A Purchasing Decision Worth of YRO??!! (Score:5, Insightful)
This story has nothing to do with "rights". Your rights and mine are not affected by this story.
Nothing to see here. Please move on.
Re:open office? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you know what their requirements are? Were you in the board room when this deal was being discussed?
Re:Hrm. (OOo) (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps when OOo 2.0 becomes stable there can be an argument for moving to open source desktop applications, but until then, I can't blame the gov't for trying to stick to the tried and true.
Hahaha (Score:2, Insightful)
is this just a blip in Microsoft's dominance in controlling government software decisions?
Perhaps you've forgotten that Microsoft owns [geek.com] a sizeable amount of Corel and stands to profit from this deal anyways.
um, no... (Score:3, Insightful)
No, someone in purchasing just happened to find something cheaper that could get the job done.
Move along, nothing to see here. (as usual)
Re:Hrm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just to head something off... (Score:3, Insightful)
I call... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Get used to it. (Score:4, Insightful)
As a matter of fact, in light of the fact that you can walk from the US to Canada, one might even say that it DOESN'T count as overseas at all!
Haha (Score:3, Insightful)
"What's a quarter?"
-Bill Gates on Family Guy
Re:Hrm. (Score:4, Insightful)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2, Insightful)
Reveal codes is not mutuallly exclusive to styles (Score:3, Insightful)
Reveal codes is an absolutely wonderful feature for fixing broken documents. Not everyone uses Word styles (I'm tempted to say a minority do) & you WILL get broken, kludgy documents. If for no other reason than this, it would be nice to see where codes start/stop.
It is nice to see exactly where an image is anchored or when a hyphen/spacing is breaking/nonreaking and when these or line/page breaks are optional or forced.
It is also extremely useful to see when a STYLE starts/stops! Third-parties sell an atrocious hack to put a reveal codes feature into Word. The real thing is better.
It is the next best feature to using transparent plaintext formats like docbook/LaTeX, where you can get the same info.
Re:Hrm. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Alt-F3 Tells All (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Alt-F3 Tells All (Score:5, Insightful)
Go with OpenOffice? but that would make us short our spending budget? Are you mad? You're fired..
Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems a more plausable reason in my mind anyway.
Re:Alt-F3 Tells All (Score:2, Insightful)
Not really a wise decision to state such. As the federal government has to go through an objective bidding process for procurement, Microsoft could appeal, charging these people as being biased and rigging the bidding.
If you're in a public agency, involved with purchasing, you learn pretty fast to keep your yap shut on your own favoring/disfavoring opinions, because it's embarrassing to the head of the organization when a challenge is issued and it's found your people shot their mouths off after stearing the bidding.
Corporate Decision. (Score:2, Insightful)
No difference between this and a software company using their own inferior in-house software rather than purchase something outside...it might make them look bad. Image counts for more than logic.
And yes there is a difference between an executive branch office and a publicly traded corporation...but the same internal politics still apply.
In addition (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenOffice may actually have proven to be totally unsuitable for the lawyers in the Justice Department, just as MS Office has proven to be wholly unsuitable.
In addition to historic precedent, Corel has been solidifying their niche market by catering towards lawyers. I think they are the only word processor developer that has actually marketed a version specifically catered towards lawyers, and I believe their general overall development is heavily influenced by the needs of one particular market which Corel is well-established in and wants to stay well-established in.
Unlike MS, Corel is maintaining a stranglehold on that particular market not by underhanded tactics, but by releasing a product that is clearly superior for that particular niche.
I would not be surprised if in addition to the fact that OO has only recently become viable in general, OO may be wholly unsuitable for lawyers just as MS Office still is.
Re:Not Only That, But... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hrm. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hrm. (Score:1, Insightful)
Nothing's really changed in OO.org. It's still slow, ugly, poor usability (floating menus for choosing headings? -- even firefox moved their find to the side rather than floating over and obscuring text you're trying to read).
OO.org needs to get a better UI, preferably by ripping off MS Word / Corel (it's not like they haven't done it to each other a million times anyway -- or that original interface ideas for word processors would even be useful considering how stabilised the market is)
You Know the Drill (Score:3, Insightful)
Though I must admit to being a bit puzzled as to why they didn't say they're going with an all-linux solution. Nothing makes Microsoft crap their pants and shoot that bulk discount out faster than saying you're going with Linux...
Re:And the tech support began to weep (Score:5, Insightful)
Sweet jumping Jesus! I would hate to have you as my System Administrator. As you said -- the USERS like WP better. Not because they can play, but because they LIKE IT BETTER. Just because you don't like the way the software is supported shouldn't be the final reason for not picking the software. The money saved by having the USERS more productive would be more than enough to pay for the support contract.
I should point out that Microsoft has support contracts for Office too. A lot of the time the free information you can find in the MSDN or online somewhere won't solve your problem. If you need to pay in the end anyways, why not use the software the USERS prefer?
Holy shit, where do you work? I'll gladly take your job and save that company time, money, and probably idiotic commentary from you.
Not part of the solution, you are the problem. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Alt-F3 Tells All (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Alt-F3 Tells All (Score:1, Insightful)
Which is an myth, pure and simple, propagated by conservatives to spread the gospel of Government inefficiency. Ever heard of a not-so-little thing called the GAO [gao.gov]?
That's why governments go hog crazy on spending in Febuary just before income tax time.
And the more detailed the nonsense is, the more easy it is to debunk; the federal fiscal year starts in October.
Re:And the tech support began to weep (Score:3, Insightful)
"Apologies" he says - "these are not the tools I wanted. But I was told by the administrator they are much easier to maintain and they do save the hospital a lot of money. I shall make do as best as I can..."
Re:In addition (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because they clearly realise that they have choice in the matter. That they acknowledge that alternatives exists, and critically evaluate the alternatives, is the most important thing here - not what software they ended up with.