Microsoft's Bulk Deal With New Zealand Collapses 166
vik writes "The latest 3-year, pan-government deal that Microsoft has been establishing with the New Zealand government since 2000 has collapsed, opening the doors to the wider use of open source software in government. The NZ State Services Commission (already a prize-winning user of open source) says in a statement that it '...became apparent during discussions that a formal agreement with Microsoft is no longer appropriate.' Having lost their discount, individual government departments will now have to put their IT requirements out to tender individually."
We'll see.... (Score:4, Interesting)
A small win, but MS has lobbyists (Score:5, Interesting)
Before you all rejoice in hallelujah glory please remember that:
1) MS is a powerful marketing organisation with a single control center. It has millions to spend on lobbying. Instead of one central purchasing order they will go after each state/county and government organisation parallely and independently.
2) To take advantage of this situation the FOSS/Open Source has NO marketing budget or marketing plan except for some backdoor geeks.
3) Lobbyists that MS hires far outmatch the abilities of what FOSS can bring up....
Let's face facts ok?
We have been a good, in fact excellent opening in a battle. The enemy has taken a big kick in its balls and is down for a few moments.
But, we lack the control center and resources of taking advantage of it.
If i were Red Hat or Ubuntu (in a corporate sense), i would be in NZ now talking to the main permanent secretaries and other pukes down there to hammer down an initial PoC for Linux/Open office.
And yes i would offer a central help center staffed by real people who can train the department's IT staff and/or assist them in installing, fixing bugs, training staff, etc all the things Microsoft will do.
And yes, i would sign a one-year contract with them offering them a FREE software with paid support.
But, as FOSS supporter do i have a centralized marketing budget, people, resources to make it happen?
NOOOO.
Its likea Sniper going against an entire armoured division. Yeah it sounds gung-ho, but that does not win a war gentlemen. We need the three C's of marketing. Command, Control and a Corporate willing to take risks and Money.
Once we have that in form of Red Hat or corporate Ubuntu we can talk about a Master Plan on taking down MS...
Until then shut up the vodka bottles. Its too early to celebrate.
They want better deal (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:RIP (Score:5, Interesting)
In my experience it's not so difficult to teach a person with low Windows knowledge to do the same fundamental actions in another OS, Ubuntu being my preferred alternative for these. The tasks these people do are virtually the same. What is difficult is to teach the thick headed thinks-he-knows-his-computer guy, that has learned some semi advanced tweaking and configuring in Windows, to start "all over". To me it's clear, these people push it away not because they can't, but because they thought they could and when they realise that Windows has tought them very little (since little hacking is necessary) about general OS structure and configuration. I'm saying this because the first time I really forced myself to give Linux a chance I started off, on recommendation from friends using Linux, with Slackware. As a thick headed thought-I-knew-my-computer I'd tell you one thing: I was fucking lost. This failed, that failed -- and I can tell you that from a Windows users perspective the word "sound server" was very confusing. But as I moved further and further away from the Windows concept (what I thought was how an OS was built) I began learning how OSs function in reality. Of course the hardware resources of your soundcard may only be accessable by one application, which is why you need a sound server to distribute/gather/tunnel the stream, but Windows never even hinted this very fundamental fact about hardware/software interaction. Also I have to add that this was many years ago and long before Mark Shuttleworth first spoke the word Ubuntu, nowadays the sound server example might be nullified by Ubuntu as well. But it wouldn't matter, my point is that you find it difficult because you find it difficult, not because it is difficult, if you understand what I mean. So you see there are 3 types of users, the one that knows, the one that doesn't know and last and worst the one that thinks he knows, don't be the latter, nobody likes this guy.
Re:RIP (Score:3, Interesting)
Mind you, I have to help out my Windows-using friends as well :(
You didn't hear? The best IT friend excuse was formed, it goes by: "I'm sorry man, I never learned Vista so I can't help you. :(". Seriously though it's the best excuse I've found for bailing out of those people-taking-advantage-of-your-juicy-brain situations.
Back to the topic though. I understand your argument about scattered and misleading information, but this is a self solving problem caused by the small magnitude of Linux. As Linux grows, so will this problem shrink. However there are still many detailed and very helpful resources for your distro, if you're using any major distro. My favourite being gentoo wiki [gentoo-wiki.com]. Apart from you have the regular Ubuntu resources, launchpad, ubuntuforums etc. In addition to this you have great independent resources such as linuxquestions.org [linuxquestions.org]
I like to use Ubuntu a lot, as you might notice, in my examples. Not because it's "the master distro", not at all actually. But it's unique in a way where "automagic" is a key word. This is what the common user wants, and we will see more ubuntu-like distros coming as time goes. For now I support Ubuntu as much as I support FOSS simply because it's a milestone in FOSS development that has already made it to history, any person whom doesn't recognize that fact is lying to himself. You don't have to promote it, you don't have to use it, you don't even have to like it, but you should never lie about what it is.
Re:We'll see.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, just so you know, not very far from home (for me at least) there is this semi-Utopian place [wordpress.com] where people say "Windows? What's that?".
But everyone is still going to fuss because it is communist... and Linux is now being seen as a communist thing... and only Obama can change things... yes I know. It is still a ray of hope in a world of darkness. It should be worth mentioning, though, that this state elects a communist government every five years, and have the option not to and had the world's first elected communist government.
Re:RIP (Score:3, Interesting)
Put the Lexmark down and step away from 1998. Your 4 paragraphs detailing one area where Windows is better than Linux (and only due to market considerations, not technical considerations) is amusing but overall pointless. I've personally set up about 50 desktop linux installations for friends and family who want to use me as their "computer guy". You have a (very small) point in that you can't just pick up ANY hardware and have it work in Linux, only about 90% of it works immediately. You're completely wrong about people being too stupid to realize that they have to buy something that works with their computer in order to, ya know, use it with their computer. By your logic Macs wouldn't exist simply due to not being 100% compatible with your pet OS.
You keep on spreading that FUD, but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy the ease of maintenance on my household's 2 linux desktops, 3 linux laptops and my linux server. Hell, I've even completely replaced cable TV with internet video.
A quick re-read of your post basically comes down to this bit of logic: Linux is not ready for the desktop because a few hardware companies have not yet blessed it as ready for the desktop. Linux is inferior to Windows because Lexmark says so, and that's the bottom line, nothing you can do about it but not be good enough.
See how goofy that sounds? As it turns out, it's just as silly in practice, as none of the few vendors that are actually Linux hostile have a monopoly in their market, thus any part you need is available at a reasonable (for the item) cost.
Re:Is New Zealand any where near Vancouver? (Score:3, Interesting)
They fly direct! [scoop.co.nz]
(For fourteen straight hours)