[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux for the State of Texas?

[Daniel Hauck]

a.. 2002-04-19 11:02:34 Microsoft says state agency owes $1.5 million
(articles,microsoft) (rejected)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dusty Matthews" <dustym at riseup.net>
To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Linux for the State of Texas?


> I submitted a story to Slashdot too, I will probably submit one to
Kuro5hin,
> as well.
>
> We should really not stand for this. Open Source software is a perfect
> solution for government organisations. It is about time they wake up to
the
> benifits of it.
>
> As open source advocates, we cannot make the government switch over night,
> but we can wear on them and continue to lobby for the adoption of this
kind
> of software, and maybe, over time, we will see a generation of enlightened
> public officials.
>
> Dustym
> dustym at riseup.net
>
> On Friday 19 April 2002 06:34, you wrote:
> > Hehehe... Good one!
> >
> > I just submitted the article to Slashdot to see if we can gain some
> > recognition on this issue.  I believe that shining the correct political
> > light on this matter will help to leverage our point of view on this.
> > Microsoft, the criminal-anti-trust-loser, has given the state of Texas a
> > very large bill that taxpayers will certainly NOT appreciate.  And if
there
> > is one thing that I know about the taxpayers of Texas, is that they
don't
> > like to pay taxes and there's a great deal of political leverage
there...
> > possibly moreso than in other states who currently have a state income
tax.
> > In this case, the taxpayers are the land and business owners.  Those are
> > the people who carry political influence in our state and those are the
> > people currently being offended by Microsoft and those are the people we
> > should find a way to carry the message to.
> >
> > Form an inteligent intiative that says "ween ourselves from Microsoft or
> > face $XXX million each year" in taxes and I believe the results would be
> > profound.  I personally know one attorney who could represent our
interests
> > in Dallas county... and possibly just for the fun of it!
> >
> > In politics, timing and public opinion are very important factors.  The
> > state's IT people will have to put up a very strong argument to stay
with
> > Microsoft.  I happen to know that the state's comptrollers carry a lot
more
> > weight, however.  On Monster.com, I have found an opportunity listed:
> >
> > http://jobsearch.monster.com/getjob.asp?jobid=14487962
> >
> > How appropriate.  It would appear that Tarrant County, a segment of the
> > same department charged $1.5M by Microsoft, is building a new project
using
> > all Microsoft enterprise servers in conjunction with AS/400's.  That's a
> > LOT of money spent on something that could very easily be tackled with a
> > free SQL server system.
> >
> > This is a chance for those who want to do their part in supporting and
> > promoting the use and popularity of open-source software who are not
> > programmers.  Many times I've asked myself "hey, what can you do?"
Here's
> > something I can do... and something you can do too.  I have written my
> > state representatives on this matter and I suppose I should also contact
my
> > more local government as well.  The letters do carry weight.  They will
> > carry more weight if we can get more publicity on this matter as well.
> >
> > Question:  What aspects could backfire?  Well, Microsoft could be using
> > this $1.5M bill as leverage to get Texas to buy more enterprise-level
> > licenses. It wouldn't be unheard of for Microsoft to offer a plan like
"buy
> > all this stuff and we'll forgive you the $1.5M."  Texans don't take it
that
> > way willingly though...  the time is now.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Steve Baker" <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>
> > To: "NTLUG DISCUSS" <discuss at ntlug.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 11:12 PM
> > Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Linux for the State of Texas?
> >
> > > After our discussion of whether Texas should mandate use of
> > > OpenSource or not, I thought this was a timely article:
> > >
> > > http://www.austin360.com/aas/metro/041202/12prison.html
> > >
> > > (Basically, Microsoft think the state's prison service owes
> > > them $1.5M in licensing fees for what seems to me like nothing
> > > more than poor record keeping.)
> > >
> > > Since they don't have any budget to pay this bill, now might
> > > be a good time to point to Linux and say: "FREE"  (Although
> > > one could argue that Freedom isn't generally top of the
> > > Prison service's business practices!  :-)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
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