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Microsoft Sinks Teeth Into New Orleans
An anonymous reader writes: "The New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting that Mayor Nagin is considering letting Microsoft upgrade the city's computers free of charge. The catch? New Orleans eventually has to buy the software and Microsoft gets to use the city as a marketing model to push this on the rest of the country." According to the article, a similar system Microsoft developed for Oklahoma "is expected to expand into accident reporting, video arraignment and automated pawn-shop-ticket tracking." So don't worry about privacy -- it's all taken care of. Open bidding's taken care of too: "Because these services are considered a gift, the city won't have to publicly bid the project." Sounds like dirty pool to me.
Consider these handcuffs a gift from Microsoft.
Go ahead. Try them on. Fits real nice, huh?
You will, of course, have to pay for them later.
-----
The angel in the oatmeal.
They're offering them a good deal, they're not suing them. For the non-initiated, it's called business.
It shuts out network OS competition, and it shuts out hundreds of companies that develop applications for cities and governments.
A lot of cities and their respective police departments have a "no gift" policy. In other words, an officer or government official cannot accept a gift - as it could be seen as a bribe.
No. Wait. It *is* a bribe.
"Here, take this software for free so you will be stuck in my neverending upgrade cycle. You'll have to pay me later, then pay me again when you go to upgrade."
Something stinks here..
= Grow a brain...
The article says they eventually have to buy software, as in down the road they'll pay for software but not the stuff that is being given to them. I'm from New Orleans, and frankly unless something like this happened, there is no way our city's information infrastructure was going to be overhauled. In the article, it said it was saving us $100 million. Except that New Orleans doesn't have $100 million to spend.
They're not just talking about giving away unlimited copies of Windows XP, they're talking about modernizing and developing systems that antiquated or non-existant. City gov't could go download all the copies of Linux they like, but they still would have to pay people to build the databases and various systems our city lacks. I recently got a traffic ticket down here. On the ticket it tells you can pay on the web or by phone. Guess what? Those systems simply don't exist! Our city's IT capabilities are in shambles.
Sorry fellas, but this is GOOD thing for the city of New Orleans.
MikeAtIF*ckStuffedAnimalsDotCom
Everyone here is smarter than the politicians in New Orleans.
Hmmmmm.
That sounds about right.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
Here in Peru, the response from M$ to the Open Source proposal was not only the easily rebutted FUD letter. There was also a 'donation' of computers and software to the schools. All free, of course... for 5 years. after that, we'll have to pay for the priviledge of being locked-in with the propietary formats.
And the same line: "Since it's a donation, there was no public bidding", and it will make impossible to apply the OpenSource law (if it would be approved).
How can we escape? having no money is no longer a defense from being robbed
-Kz-
According to the Slashdot story... "New Orleans eventually has to buy the software..."
Yet, the article says... Eventually, he added, the city will have to purchase software from the company...
The article would suggest that future software will not be free. Not that the current software will, in the future, have to be purchased. A minor detail perhaps, but it does explain why the software is a gift.
It would be like a gun maker giving pistols to a police department a substantial savings, but making them purchase their own magazines, springs, etc.
I personally don't see a problem with what Microsoft is doing.
If there's a contract involved.
Microsoft is stipulating that they buy in the future, according to the article. There's an obvious transfer of value between parties.
If I were in the position to bid in one of those cities, believe me, I would sue.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
If they're indeed trying to get around the open bidding requirement (I assume such exists), then it's called dirty business.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
As much as it might seem shady, the reality here is that Microsoft is just acting like a business -- trying to find ways to get around spending processes to get their products into new areas. If they were passing up the opportunities like this, I (were I a stockholder) would be screaming for the head of the sales dept.
The ones who ought to be ashamed here are the New Orleans officals who are trying to sidestep the processes set up to discourage, well, this sort of thing. They may be following the letter of the law, but they're blatently violating the spirit.
It's up to the voters to punish them.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
> still would have to pay people to build the
> databases and various systems our city lacks
Sounds great but you do realize that M$ has been spouting off for years that those expenditures pale in comparison to the full life of the system.
Yeah.
Why the hell don't Red Hat's marketing department get off their a*ses and make a similar offer EVERY TIME Microsoft tries something like this.
Red Hat are a commercial entity, and obviously want to make money. But why don't they offer government organisations like this all the free software they could want, for no money EVER, and just charge them for supporting it?
I see your point, but the question is, "are you going from the the frying pan to the fire."
And the honest answer is, "I don't know."
My
Limekiller
Big computer companies have been using this tactic for decades.
.
You want to enter a marketplace? First problem is you haven't got a reference site so noone will take you seriously.
So you buy yourself a reference site and shower them with goodies to make sure the software, hardware and services all hang together. Now you can go to other related businesses with a credible offer.
For this to work, the vendor has to have deep enough pockets to make the showcase site a success, and time enough to do the job properly. Secondly the marketplace has to be broad enough to replicate the showcase to a goodly number of real paying customers.
Nothing wrong here, quite the reverse, it's good business to invest time and effort on satisfying customer demand.
This sort of strategy is popular in the public sector, with regional governments and the like. They all have broadly similar requirements, and are strapped for cash, so that someone will likely be prepared to take the risk of being the trial site. I have also seen it work in smaller banks, the ones who can't really afford to develop new solutions in house.
The upside for the vendor is that you get a pretty much captive market: the customer can't usually afford to pay for any alternative system. This means that you can sell them related services at a premium rate year after year.
The downside is that the margins are hit initially, after all you had to buy the business. Further, if the target marketplace is not actually as homogeneous as you thought, then there can be expensive customisation required for new clients. They won't take the offering just as a package so the perceived risk and cost goes up, meaning that your expensive reference site is not quite so compelling.
The downside for the customer comes when the vendor's pockets aren't so deep, and they are in a hurry for profit.
There are quite a few spins on this strategy, the worst of which is "break the customer's leg and then sell them a splint". In other words, you get 6 months into the project before revealing that there are significant "special" problems that can be blamed on the customer. These "problems" are outside the scope of the original agreement and the customer has to write some cheques to cover it. 6 months later, new unexpected problems crop up . . .
Well MS has the deep pockets for this kind of work, but they are in a hurry. Tough call to decide whether it's good business or not.
Modernizing and devolpment are great, but just like Linux, New Orleans is going to need people to support Windows. Even at a smaller college here in Minnesota, it can take a lot of man hours to get a new system up and running (whether its wireless, a new mail server, or just updating 300 new computers)
Getting ahead now is fine, but what is Microsft going to say 5 years from now when its time to upgrade again? Do you really think they'll allow the city to keep its copies of Windows XP when the special license agreement says they must upgrade or else?
How about maintaining systems that have known major security flaws? Someone finding out you got a traffic ticket might not be a big deal, but what about the fact you got arrested 12 years ago, or how much money you make... Not that Linux is totally secure, but theres a lot easier ways of fixing problems once they're found.
If you need a system customized for running a traffic ticket managment system, then Linux can be customized to do so. Do you need a way to keep track of city salaries, Linux can do a better job of managing a database of names and income levels.
If the city doesn't have money to buy software, how are they going to afford the actual hardware to run XP on? Its great for gaming if you can have that 2GHz P4, but for older systems its just going to hold things back.
the "marketing model to push this on the rest of the country" part of the contract has kicked in, you mean?
/. then.
Bet New Orleans gets burned on this deal sometime in the next 5 years;) see ya back at
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
If this was Redhat doing this it would be praised.
Isn't doing about what they're doing now how they got into trouble in the first place?
"Microsoft Sinks Teeth Into New Orleans"
with a counter headline being something like
"Linux wins over hearts and souls of Germany"
Its just business, leave the emotions at the door if you want to perform your best. Microsoft did in 1981 and if linux wants a bigger market they will too.
Real gifts come with no strings attached - a no contracts.
Is this really a gift?
How about if ALL CITIES are made to run on an entirely Microsoft infrastructure?
Too much power. I'm sorry. Executive/legislature/judiciary is enough. We don't need to go executive/legislature/judiciary/Microsoft.
Microsoft needs to expand beyond business, because there's not that much farther they can go WITHIN business. On the one hand BSA work, on the other hand this. Microsoft are getting into government and this is the most obvious move in the world.
The problem is that there was no bid process. Clearly Microsoft gains in this, or they wouldn't do it. Shouldn't others be able to show how their solution would be even better for the city long-term, and the potential problems with the existing solution?
This is the entire reason that government entities have bid processes - to make sure that noone is slimeballing their way into making the city pay out large sums of money. In this case, the payment is delayed, but the lock-in is evident.
Engineering and the Ultimate