Red Hat Challenges Swiss Government Over Microsoft Monopoly 245
An anonymous reader writes "'Linux vendor Red Hat, and 17 other vendors, have protested a Swiss government contract given to Microsoft without any public bidding. The move exposes a wider Microsoft monopoly that European governments accept, despite their lip service for open source, according to commentators. The Red Hat group has asked a Swiss federal court to overturn a three-year contract issued to Microsoft by the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and Logistics, to provide Windows desktops and applications, with support and maintenance, for 14M Swiss francs (£8M; $15M) each year. The contract, for 'standardized workstations,' was issued with no public bidding process, Red Hat's legal team reports in a blog — because the Swiss agency asserted there was no sufficient alternative to Microsoft products.'"
And the Swiss sue back! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Interesting)
Somebody in the procurement department either
(a) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that erroneously states that they need won't work with Linux, and therefore has to be excluded from the procurement process.
or
(b) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that correctly states that they need won't work with Linux, and therefore has to be excluded from the procurement process.
Unfortunately, that's not a Microsoft Monopoly, in either case. If its (a) then their IT staff suck, not Microsoft's fault, and not making Microsoft a monopoly. If its (b) then Linux sucks for their needs, which again is not Microsoft's fault and does not make Microsoft a monopoly.
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the sad part is there is probably truth in the parent. Somebody in the procurement department either (a) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that erroneously states that they need won't work with Linux, and therefore has to be excluded from the procurement process. or (b) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that correctly states that they need won't work with Linux, and therefore has to be excluded from the procurement process. Unfortunately, that's not a Microsoft Monopoly, in either case. If its (a) then their IT staff suck, not Microsoft's fault, and not making Microsoft a monopoly. If its (b) then Linux sucks for their needs, which again is not Microsoft's fault and does not make Microsoft a monopoly.
Which is why Switzerland is being sued, not Microsoft. The summary is actually somewhat erroneous here, because this has little to do with Microsoft or its monopoly, they just happen to be the bidder here.
Most government departments have mandatory open bidding processes for procurement of everything from software to roads. If they had, in violation of these rules, given a no-bid contract to Red Hat, Microsoft could've sued the Swiss government on the exact same grounds and forced them to use a competitive bidding process. If the same process occurred in roadbuilding, and they gave a no-bid to Contractor A when Contractor B also wanted a shot to bid, Contractor B can sue. So it's true that Microsoft isn't really in the wrong here, a Swiss government agency is.
That being said, however, as to your "a" and "b" scenarios, it really doesn't matter. The way the bidding process works is that they present a set of requirements as to what the product being procured must do. Anyone who is willing to fill those requirements (either by using what they've already got or developing something new to fill them) may bid. In your "b" scenario, they would have to know not only that "Red Hat's software is currently incapable of doing something we need", but also that "Red Hat is unwilling or unable to develop that functionality." Apparently, that's not the case, since it seems Red Hat certainly does want a stab at it.
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Switzerland states that only MS will do, but how can you truly know what's available without a public bid?
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Switzerland states that only MS will do, but how can you truly know what's available without a public bid?
Indeed. But all too often, you can't even know it then. It's common practice in every government agency everywhere to "fix" a purchase or hire process in a simply way. You get together with the bidder/applicant that you want to win, and make up a set of "requirements" that are carefully tailored to have at least one item which you know each potential vendor/applicant will fail. You might include rea
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's bad either way. Even if it is true that they have something that genuinely can only be made to work with Windows as of today (and they genuinely cannot meet said Windows requirement in any way other than having Windows on all desktops), they should still open the bidding process and allow Linux vendors to quote them a price that includes fixing the problem in Linux.
It might still work out cheaper than going with Windows, and if it doesn't, then they can still go with Windows, secure in the knowledge that there has been a fair and open bidding process to justify their decision.
As for the monopoly argument, I don't see a problem with the term. If the Swiss government is automatically granting business to Microsoft without allowing any competitors to bid, then the Swiss government is indeed effectively granting Microsoft a monopoly. The market in question is a fairly small one, and the existence of the monopoly is the fault of the Swiss government rather than of Microsoft, but it appears to exist nonetheless.
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The market in question is a fairly small one, and the existence of the monopoly is the fault of the Swiss government rather than of Microsoft, but it appears to exist nonetheless.
If Switzerland is anything like the US, I'd wager the market you're referring to (federal, state and local contracts) is a lot larger than you think. Maybe someone can cite some real numbers, but I'd guess it outstrips anything in the private sector.
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Insightful)
For 10 million (or more) dollars, I'm pretty sure Red Hat could make whatever they need to work work. The biggest advantage Linux has is enterprise installations that are large enough to absorb programmer salaries into the budget, and thus can customize the entire installation for a one time cost.
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Somebody in the procurement department either
(a) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that erroneously states that they need won't work with Linux, and therefore has to be excluded from the procurement process.
or
(b) Has a report from someone in their IT Department that correctly states that they need won't work with Linux,
Regardless, they are required to put it out for tender. Even if they think only one company is capable of supplying a service, it has to go thruogh an open specification and bi
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Unfortunately, that's not a Microsoft Monopoly, in either case. If its (a) then their IT staff suck, not Microsoft's fault, and not making Microsoft a monopoly. If its (b) then Linux sucks for their needs, which again is not Microsoft's fault and does not make Microsoft a monopoly.
Exactly. Or:
c) Their IT staff is really good at supporting Windows but doesn't know, nor care to learn how to support Linux. So they can replace all their IT staff or they can go with Windows.
There is still a lot of software out there that doesn't support Linux at least on the client side. For example: SAP, AutoCAD, MS Office (sucks but still the best office suite IMHO) are all Windows client only systems. Sometimes not bidding isn't picking on the vendor you don't go with, sometimes it is "I know what
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Informative)
Just be aware that Switzerland is NOT an EU member, so only Swiss laws does apply.
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Just be aware that Switzerland is NOT an EU member, so only Swiss laws does apply.
Don't be too sure of that; they are part of the Schengen [wikipedia.org] and have various other treaties with the EU.
So What? (Score:2)
The UK and Ireland, both EU members, are not part of the Schengen agreement.
Swiss Law Only Relevant (Score:3, Informative)
In fact I can go further and inform you that Swiss law is the only real issue here.
Switzerland did not enter into the EEA-agreement and only has bilateral agreements with the EU on trade etc.
All EU related law is processed by the EFTA Court (not the EU equivalent).
The Schengen agreement only relates to travel.
See more at http://www.efta.int/ [efta.int]
To make things more complicated (Score:4, Informative)
Just be aware that Switzerland is NOT an EU member
But we did democratically vote and sign several bilateral treaties.
RedHat challenges to see if they could use the implications of some of those treaties and ask for a public bid.
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Responding to a troll perhaps, but I've never had a scanner that doesn't work with linux. Xsane is pretty solid.
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Not to mention my example - my scanner is an all in one scanner/printer/card reader - I generally just scan direct to the SD card in the scanner and then read the contents of the card to the machine, as you would with any USB storage device.
That's not to say it doesn't work - I haven't actually ever tried scanning direct to the connected machine (Windows or Linux). It's a completely platform/driver/application independent solution!
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I have an older HP all in one scanner that doesn't even work with vista, yet the latest ubuntu picks it up out of the box... It did with with xp, but you had to install hp's rather bloated drivers.
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And the Swiss sue back! (Score:5, Informative)
The Swiss like their operating systems like their cheese -- Plenty of holes.
I know you're trying to be funny, but I'll put on my pedantic hat and remind everyone that Switzerland makes lots of cheeses, few of which contain holes.
What you're thinking of is that yellowish waxy product made in Wisconsin or California that vaguely resembles emmenthaler [wikipedia.org]. By contrast, appenzeller [wikipedia.org] and gruyere [wikipedia.org], for example, are similarly popular, and have no holes.
So much for your holey theory. ;-)
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not like clocks?
That's odd (Score:5, Informative)
When I installed Linux my Canon scanner just worked.
When I installed Windows, it told me I needed to install a driver. What does that mean?
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Bullshit. DO your homework. HP printers/scanners all work under Linux. I've not had a need to search for other drivers, but I'm sure there are more.
I play (Score:2, Funny)
Star Wars monopoly usually - regular monopoly some times.
Re:I play (Score:5, Funny)
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Brilliant!
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Re:I play (Score:5, Funny)
the Linux Kernel itself replaces Boardwalk, because it's the most important piece of software in a Linux distro
Somewhere in a basement beneath MIT, Richard Stallman just peed his pants in exasperated fury.
Park Place becomes glibc (Score:2)
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that's actually pretty good.
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Minor corrections (Score:3, Informative)
He's been promising an operating system, GNU Hurd, for a long time.
He's been promising an operating system called GNU, and Hurd is the name of its kernel. Since it's the canonical (but not the Canonical :D) version of GNU, it needn't be called GNU/Hurd.
Also, RMS suggests that you use a slash in "GNU/Linux" such that "GNU" isn't understood as an adjective. If the FSF made their own distro, it might be reasonable to call it "GNU Linux" to distinguish it from other distros (and since GNU is already in the name, calling it "GNU GNU/Linux" probably isn't necessary). Just lik
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So the GP was just poking fun at Stallman's continual taking credit for Linux's success because of all of "his" GNU tools included in every distro.
I believe I should take issue with that.
I wouldn't call it so much "taking credit" as he simply wants the GNU project to get it's fair share of credit. No one is claiming that GNU is more important than any other component of the OS,
No one, that is, as long as you don't count the guy putting GNU at the beginning of his suggested "combined name"....
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Switzerland not in EU (Score:5, Informative)
For anybody interested how this interacts with all the pro linux movements from the EU recently, well its completely orthogonal Switzerland is not a member of the EU.
Btw i believe the issue here is the lack of bidding process not that the contract went to Microsoft, like if all the contracts for costly wars in the midle east were given to a particular company without offering them up to any of the competition, good thing shit like that doesn't happen...oooh!
Re:Switzerland not in EU (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm just surprised that Governments so readily lets themselves be at the mercy of a foreign corporation. At the least, they could mandate open formats for when the propietary solution is better but giving them a later option to move to something else.
IIRC, Chinese government smartly maintains it's own linux distro.
Switzerland is a federationm Direct Democracy (Score:5, Informative)
This is _why_ Switzerland is not in the EU, last time the pols tried it was thrown out by a 87% majority and that was the second asking so it wont come back for 30 years. Switzerland is in EFTA and has a bilateral treaty with the EU and is implementing the Shengen accord. Less strict frontier controls. If a question is decided at referendum it can normally be asked once again, but if voted down it is rude, and pointless to bring it back so pols cant saw, or piggy back the way they can in the US.
Many parts of Switzerland do use open source, The City of Zurich (Stadt Zürich) uses it extensively, as does Academia. Kanton Zürich provides tax preparation software free for Linux, Mac & M$Win.
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Uhhh, prectically speaking, there may not be a LOT of difference between a federation and a republic. But, the US is not a federation. It IS a republic. Often touted to be a democratic republic, but a republic all the same. Member states do not enjoy the right to secede, nor do they enjoy any right of veto, or other useful tools that might block the republic's goals or actions.
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Uhhh, prectically speaking, there may not be a LOT of difference between a federation and a republic. But, the US is not a federation. It IS a republic.
"Federation" and "republic" are completely orthogonal. You can have a federation that's not a republic (e.g. Grand Duchy of Lithuania), and you can have a republic that's not a federation (e.g. present-day France).
Member states do not enjoy the right to secede, nor do they enjoy any right of veto
None of those are required in a federation. All that's needed to qualify is self-governance for the constituent entities, with clearly defined limits which cannot be encroached upon by the central government. Thus, Canada, for example, is a federation; and U.S., most definitely so.
Re:Switzerland is a federationm Direct Democracy (Score:4, Insightful)
All that's needed to qualify is self-governance for the constituent entities, with clearly defined limits which cannot be encroached upon by the central government.
Which proves that the US is not a federation. c.f. Gonzales v Raich.
The US was intended to be a federation, but the states have been gradually weakened to the point that they have only whatever power the central government chooses to allow them, and not one bit more. The big turning point was the 16th and 17th amendments. The 16th gave the federal government the power of the purse and the 17th liberated it from state oversight.
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What swillden says. The states have no clearly defined rights on which the US federal government cannot encroach. Our civil war established that fact.
HTML? (Score:2)
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I do not know how well Slashdot handles UTF-8. I just did the same thing you did, using ü for ü, but I sent it HTML formatted. Hmm. . . That seems to work in Plain Old Text
Sorry if I'm hostile, but I see a lot of this on Slashdot.
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Re:Switzerland is a federationm Direct Democracy (Score:4, Informative)
I work for the canton of Zürich, and I can tell you that getting a piece of OSS into the system is almost always a renegade act by a single sysadmin. In no way are we using OSS extensively. If you want to look at extensive OSS use, look at the canton of Solothurn, which has replaced all Windows-PCs and servers in public administration with ones running Linux.
Zürich has a policy that states that OSS should be _considered_ on each round of software evaluations, but may only be used it it presents "no additional burden" to the user. Of course all of the senior admins, those who are in power, will find reasons to use their favorite Windows-based piece of software thanks to that clause. Anything else would simply be "an inconvenience to the user", and that's how you shoot down any attempt to introduce OSS.
I work in a part of gov't that is reasonably independent, but even we were forced by cantonal politics to replace our (perfectly working) Postfix + Courier installation with a (very buggy) Microsoft Exchange solution that takes THREE TIMES as much hardware to run. And I don't know how much more personnel is necessary, adding a fixed slice to our running costs.
Or do you have a list of where and what OSS is used in the canton? Would be interesting to see, as I've been trying to network with the responsible people for years, and all I get is screams of impotent rage from those who'd like to implement OSS and smug grins from those who oppose it.
(Slashdot: Fix character encoding? My umlauts all died :( )
Re:Switzerland is a federationm Direct Democracy (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite..
Yes it is a direct democracy. This means we have two powers, apart from choosing our representatives:
- The power to take up a referendum against a proposed law. This takes some 50'000 people to sign a paper saying so. If this suceeds, there will be a ballot where every citizen (from the age of 18 upwards) may vote for or against it.
- The power to propose laws. This takes 100'000 people to back it. If that suceeds, there will again be a ballot.
The 26 cantons are not the main power. They have a lot to say in their respective area, like infrastructure or taxes, but they haven't too much to say when it comes to laws. Still, it's possible that one canton outlaws smoking in restaurants, where the others don't -- but it's just about impossible for a canton to lift the federal prohibition on drugs.
The voters from each canton send 2 representative to the "Ständerat", some kind like the US Senate (Upper House); and some more representatives, according to the population, to the Nationalrat (House of Commons). Both of these Houses need to ratify any proposed law. The Bundesrat (7 people) is the executive and is not directly chosen by the people, but by the Nationalrat and the Ständerat.
Anyway. This has just about nothing to do with the problem at hand. Which is that contrary to the rules, the Bundesverwaltung (administration; bureaucrats essentially) has given contracts to Microsoft without opening them for bids.
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Prove which part:
switzerland isnt part of the EU [wikipedia.org]
The issue being the bidding process should be made clearer in the headline otherwise it sounds like Red Hat are just bad losers.
Certain companies [wikipedia.org] getting no-bid contracts [wikipedia.org] in for iraq war reconstruction [wikipedia.org]
DO you jump to accuse anybody who agrees reasonable concepts (having a fair bidding process for government contracts) of having populist bias?
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IMHO completely orthogonal is plain exaggeration. Switzerland has some treaties with the EU, such as the Shengen and Dublin ones.
I think they are just linearly independent, not orthogonal.
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Especially since pro Linux movements in Europe are, also, largery a grassroots thing, so their members don't really care that much whether or not that particular group of pro Linux buddies / neighbouars reside in a country that's part of the EU or not...
Have we learned nothing from the RIAA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't sue your potential customers. It's not a good way to improve your public relations.
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This would be more analogous to suing someone who torrents under the excuse that nobody in town sells CDs any more - when it turns out the last CD shop closed because the same person was smashing the storefront windows and assaulting people trying to enter the store.
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Don't sue your potential customers.
According to the article, there is not 'potential customer' here, just a 'STFU' from your friendly competitor who has a monopoly in the OS market who used that to force a monopoly in the word-processor market.
if they're forcing the population of switzerland to pay to support your competitor's business ideas, why would you not sue them to challenge that?
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Don't sue your potential customers. It's not a good way to improve your public relations.
Red Hat is an American company, right? If this suit goes through Swizz is perhaps more likely to pick a European Linux distro, thus America will lose trade and American jobs are lost. Go Red Hat!
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Jealous much?
Hey, I'm not the one suing here! :-)
Make it work with Active Directory first, then sue (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, I've been running Linux as my primary OS for a while now, and my work laptop is joined to Active Directory at work through Likewise Open. Even so, the integration is rudimentary at best, and every piece of software has its own little tweaks and settings. Single sign-on is a PAIN on Linux. Group policies don't exist. Peripheral compatibility is spotty, particularly with scanners. Multi-factor auth is a pain in the ass. Remote desktop (VNC) is really slow compared to RDP which makes VPN-from-home scenario painful.
Those are a few MUST HAVE things that work in Windows out of the box. RedHat should hire a few more engineers and get them cracking on those, before spending a ton of money on lawyers.
I do think that they could have supplied quite a bit on the server side, though. File serving, web serving, document sharing, DB - those things don't need Windows anymore.
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[snip] Group policies don't exist. [snip some more]
Linux does things differently. Different != inferior.
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you can use rdp from linux you don't need to use vnc
http://mobassh.mobatek.net/en/ [mobatek.net]
is a free version of ssh server to run on windows sshfs will allow you to mount your windows drives on your local linux system.
maybe these tools could make your life a little easier.
hope they help
make that part of the bid requirements, then (Score:2)
Red Hat isn't arguing that Switzerland must put any specific set of requirements on the bidding process, only that there must actually be a bidding process with openly stated requirements. If "make it work with Active Directory" is one of the requirements, then it's up to Red Hat to include that in their bid. With contracts in the range of $10m+, there is plenty that Red Hat could custom-produce if it were needed to meet the bid's requirements.
"Work with Active Directory" is a vague notion in (Score:2)
"Work with Active Directory" is a vague notion in Linux. Technically, you can install Likewise Open and join your Linux machine to a domain within 15 minutes. But then you lose the ability to add your AD-authenticated user to local groups (!). You actually have to edit obscure text files by hand to do that, the usual tools simply do nothing. Editing those files incorrectly can lock you out of your machine. All other pieces of software are NOT GUARANTEED to pick up the config. Want to open an OpenOffice doc
Microsoft Works Tirelessly (Score:5, Insightful)
They dont want to interoperate but will be forced to do so.
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Have you actually TRIED using X Window, even over broadband? I have. There are several drawbacks to it:
1. It is VERY slow, slower than VNC. It runs like a snail compared to RDP.
2. If you get disconnected, for whatever reason, your apps die and you lose data. In year 2009 this is UNACCEPTABLE.
3. Did I mention it is VERY slow?
Yes, but if you were on the University network ... (Score:2)
All things are corrected by using the proper network. As long as you confine yourself to the University Ethernet wired network you will not have these difficulties.
What? Oh, you aren't living and working at a University? Well, that's part of the problem. Much of this was designed and developed for use in a rather rarified atmosphere and trying to use it outside of that can be a real challenge. Ofen requiring the source code and a compiler. Sometimes debugger as well.
Yes, I have a production Linux serv
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Why oh why would you even want to. Run your app locally transfer your file.
RDP is a tiresome solution to make you feel as if you are productive while wasting time. Yes I've used it and it's not as great as you make it sound. Depending on the version you're on you can lock yourself out if you don't log off your sessions.
On X, I would run the app remotely and display on my system if I really had to. Only had to do it once due to licensing issues. Wasn't slow just PITA like RDP.
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Oh yea it is so horrible that I run 200+ desktop sessions on a single server ... appears to be a person at the keyboard issue.
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Like you, I don't really have any problems with X (I've been using it for a very long time) and think it even has some advantages over RDP (for example, RDP requires you set a desktop resolution, then fit your session into that window. X, on the other hand, could care less and lets you just fit the application windows into your existing display.)
However, what I quoted above is an example of o
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Two things for you:
1. Try RDP first. I have successfully logged in and worked with a machine halfway across the globe connected with a 36.6kbps modem with RDP. Try that with X.
2. Compression does not help a chatty protocol to become any less chatty and does not remove latency, which ruins everything for chatty protocols. There's a reason why people use VNC on Linux.
And BTW, xmove hasn't been updated since 1997. 12 years. Which means no one is using it.
Nope (Score:2)
Tried that, too. It's only slightly better than VNC, and you see JPEG compression artifacts on your display. Well, in fact it's a modification of VNC, so it can't be dramatically better.
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Well, in fact it's a modification of VNC
no, its a secure x windows implementation, not at all VNC, and considerably better, faster than VNC (and I still like/use VNC)
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Why is this. I have only ever been able to make X-windows work over private networks.
Not sure this is indicative, but I remember the old Vaxstation X-windows systems I used long ago tended to use UDP a bit too freely, and could have benefited by the use of TCP session connect protocol. I remember having looked into the protocols used in contrast to the Xerox 3150 (I think it was) large laser printer I was trying to integrate at the time. If I remember correctly (and there's no guarantee of that) the Xerox interpretation of certain standard protocols was not always the common interpretatio
I'm using Ubuntu everywhere (Score:2)
And I haven't paid a cent for Linux in a long time. Quality will have to improve quite a bit before I consider spending cash on it.
One department blues . . . (Score:2, Informative)
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The Swiss Department of Public Instruction, which has the motto "Long Live Free Software" and is responsible for IT policy in Swiss schools, has encouraged Linux boots in the interests of leveling the playing field for students unable to afford new computers with the latest Microsoft software, a policy in place since late 2008.
Do you realise you're talking about Switzerland, a country with one of the highest average incomes and standards of living in the world ? The price difference here between a PC wit
Building department (Score:4, Interesting)
The word "building" in there makes me wonder whether this department might actually have some kind of legitimate need for CAD software or such, which tends to be under-represented on Linux (and Mac, for that matter).
Shop around, at Microsoft we won't be undersold! (Score:5, Interesting)
I work for a large corporation that produces a lot of documents and applications our customers and vendors need to work with. MS worked out the pricing so that any other OS or office suite was a much greater capital expense on the balance sheet. They were even nice enough to provide free professional services to help us develop "solutions" that invariably locked customers and vendors into MS products.
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... so, they're doing what any reasonable company would do?
Adjust their final price, offer incentives, and taylor the product they're delivering in order to win the customer's business.
If the customer got what they wanted, and saved a bundle in the process, and did so legally, beating out what any other competitor offered... how is that a bad thing?
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A balance sheet entry is not an expense.
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Thanks for bumming me out with accounting details, I felt so good about myself after a nice MS rant
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Even so, from Switzerland's perspective that's an even better reason to squeeze Microsoft by having an open bidding process that drives the price down. Why pay them $15m when you could force them to discount?
Workstations? Microsoft? (Score:2)
I can believe some computer supplier got the contract to use Microsoft software. I would find it very difficult to believe that Microsoft got a contract for workstations (hardware) when that is clearly outside their business.
And I bet they do not have anyone that installs computers in Switzerland. Further, Microsoft partners in Switzerland would probably be rather concerned about being in competition with Microsoft for business.
Could there be any less accuracy in this summary? I didn't read the article,
suing your own customers (Score:2)
it is never a good idea to sue your own customers.
a pure coincidence, i am telling you! (Score:2, Insightful)
It is a more flexible language spoken here.
Money law applies, actually.
Some 15 months ago Bill came In Athens - Greece, gave a lecture on innovation [Microsoft's vision on the future of technology] as he put it.
At the same time and roughly through the same procedure ( no public bidding process) a 70,000 win OS + office licenses agreement was signed, between Microsoft and the Greek Minster of Economy at that time, Mr Alogoskoufis.
The motivating benefit has been 50 Visual Studio licens
watch Gates perjure himself (Score:3, Informative)
This March deposition [groklaw.net] in Novell v. Microsoft is an insult to the court, the Law, and any intelligent reader. It's time they threw the book at this liar and thief.
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Nowhere did the summary say EU.
European != EU
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Nowhere did the summary say EU.
European != EU
You mean, one of them doesn't have Australia in the middle? ~
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I'm aware, but recently I've seen a bunch of people say stuff like " I could care less about X", it may just be a failed attempt at sarcasm, or maybe they're idiots, either way it annoys me.
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Because that is the unfortunate reality in most of Europe, not only in EU countries.
Re:Swiss (Score:5, Informative)
Nowhere did the summary say EU.
European != EU.
Re:Swiss (Score:5, Informative)
Eheh (Score:2, Insightful)
By your logic, if the goverment only had Ford motorcars then GM cars ain't an alternative since their operation is geared for Ford.
Doesn't fly my friend.
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By your logic, if the goverment only had Ford motorcars then GM cars ain't an alternative since their operation is geared for Ford.
Doesn't fly my friend.
There are plenty of accurate analogies to explain this situation. Resorting instead to such a foolish and misleading one just makes all open source advocates look disingenuous and dishonest, when those are exactly (some of) the traits of Microsoft that we condemn.
Re:Eheh (Score:4, Insightful)
By your logic, if the goverment only had Ford motorcars then GM cars ain't an alternative since their operation is geared for Ford.
Doesn't fly my friend.
Well, that's because your analogy is crap.
A better might be if they only had diesel cars, and had their own filling stations that only had tanks/pumps for diesel, and someone wants to sell them gasoline or compressed natural gas cars. But that doesn't really work since in that case it's the cars (what's being replaced) that are the "important" part, whereas really it's probably what isn't being replaced (the applications) that's the important part.
Re:Maybe the Swiss just know what they want? (Score:5, Informative)
... could someone like RH claim that they could provide a solution that'd be 100%-compatible with the existing MS environment at a lower cost? I seriously doubt this would be the case.
Microsoft can't truthfully claim this, either. They certainly can't claim a lower cost than MS, but they can't even claim 100% compatibility, either.
That doesn't stop them from making the claim, though...
Re:Maybe the Swiss just know what they want? (Score:5, Informative)
it makes sense they'd go directly to MS rather than go through a public bidding process when they want to upgrade.
Many countries have laws that require a public bidding process when any governmental organization procures some good or service. You can't just ignore that when planning to make a large procurement, because that means that tax funds could be spent on a suboptimal solution.
Of course, that may happen anyway, but a public bidding process lowers that risk somewhat.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I would believe that if the cost of support wasn't thrown into the mix. Windows, Linux, and OSX all offer support services for their software. Part of what the summery was stating was the cost of that support. Red Hat offers such a service for a fee which any one doing the research into the bidding process for the OS's should know. This is why Red Hat is and should be upset they are being taken out of the running before they can even start. This is how they make their money off of their OS.
I don't know
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's a foregone conclusion that support is included in the MS offering. Based on the terms presented in the story, it looks like an Enterprise Agreement, and these typically involve some level of support (not "we'll be your helpdesk" support, but rather somewhere for your IT people to turn... to be fair, this
Re: (Score:2)
Practices like selecting some unique feature of the MS software [...]
"Must be able to run $WINDOWS_ONLY_APPLICATION in a vendor-support configuration."