Israel Suspends MS Office Purchases For Now

case_igl writes "The Seattle Times is reporting 'that in an apparent showdown over price, Israel's government has suspended purchases of Microsoft Office software and is encouraging the development of an open-source alternative.' The Finance Ministry has cooperated with Sun Microsystems and IBM in designing the Hebrew-language version of OpenOffice software, a freely distributed open-source alternative to Microsoft Office. The spokeswoman said the government was unhappy with Microsoft's refusal to sell individual programs from its standard Office package, which includes e-mail, spreadsheet and word-processing applications. Microsoft representatives in Israel did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment." The Associated Press article is carried on many other sites as well.

Comments

not?

[smsp]

I guess they don't welcome their old ms-overlord then...

Good!

[nycsubway]

More power to them! Microsoft Word's default Hebrew fonts are non-existent, and the alternative Hebrew fonts aren't very good. Nor are any of the office products very good at inputing right-to-left text. I hope the improvements to openoffice will make their way to other countries.

Re:Good!

[Jon_E]

that's precisely the problem .. only a few fonts .. for years Microsoft has been stripping down the Unicode set for many languages and effectively restricting what can be developed within their core O/S and "productivity" products .. Hence a fresh start with OpenSource allows *many* more developers and native speakers within a country develop their own fonts and contribute them back in to lower level applications.

Good example!

[hak hak]

I'd like to see more countries do this. Hopefully it'll help convince businesses and people that Microsoft isn't the only choice.

Re:Good example!

[u-235-sentinel]

I've been watching this happen over and over again. Country after country have been walking away from Microsoft over the last few years and it seems to be accelerating.

$300 for XP Pro and $500+ for Office is shear lunacy. Before you spend ANY money on hardware, you already have spent more than the hardware is worth just in a simple OS and office product. Not worth it. Not even close. When I asked for a refund for XP Pro on my laptop I was told I would receive a check for $10. Is that what I paid when purchasing the laptop? Of course when I asked for 10 copies of XP Pro at the same price they were a little miffed at me. Bummer dude.

If I'm keeping score properly, there are about 30 countries in which the Government has "allowed" opensource alternatives. Most have required justification for non-opensource software and why opensource can't be used for the work. Microsoft isn't totally out of the picture. They have a seriously reduced role which I'm encouraging everywhere I can.

Re:Powerpoint

[Anonymous Coward]

What version of OpenOffice are you using? In my version (1.1), you can insert a hyperlink by clicking Insert, Hyperlink on the menubar. Transistions and effects are handled by the Slideshow menu.

what they REALLY said

[theMerovingian]

The spokeswoman said the government was unhappy with Microsoft's refusal to sell individual programs from its standard Office package, which includes e-mail, spreadsheet and word-processing applications.

Off the record, she refered to Bill Gates as a shlemil, and said they weren't going to take any more of his schmutz. They are tired of schlepping his insecure software around, paying far too much of their hard-earned mezuma for his khazeray.

Don't read too much into this

[Naomi_the_butterfly]

As an Israeli computer technician, I see what everyone uses here. 95% (maybe more) windows. almost 100% office. now Israel's government is in a major budget crunch, and is cutting corners everywhere. Other corners cut: Handicapped support (not enough to live on now), public health benefits and so on.
as for the claims that MS office doesn't support hebrew, it depends which version. Every copy you can find in Israel will be "Hebrew Enabled" which provides FULL Hebrew support, including great help files and even the interface.

Microsoft employees and shareholders react

[The I Shing]

In the Golan Heights today, Microsoft employees and shareholders threw rocks and bottles at Isreali soldiers, who fired back with rubber-coated 8x10 glossy photos of Linus Torvalds, injuring one Microsoft employee in the left upper arm. In response to the violence, the Isreali government ordered pizzas delivered and watched reruns of South Park and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Re:"Peace" process, definitely Good ?

[drac]

(1) Are you claiming that the murders were part of a Palestinian conspiracy? Because usually, the people promising peace are not the people doing the murdering. Is that the case here? "The Palestinians" are no more a united, homogenous group than are "The Israeli Jews".

(2) Why were the Hebron settlers murdered, and were their murderers brought to justice by any common, civilised sense of the term? What often happens is that in the understandable thirst for retribution, the actual reasons for the violence are trivialised, and the social order is suspended or abandoned- which only helps bring about more violence.

Bundling

[PhYrE-K]

Bundling is just another word for profit maximizing. Microsoft makes more money by bundling, even just slightly. The newspaper example is best used. A wants just the sports section and is willing to pay 30c for it. B just wants entertainment & the front section and wants to pay 40c for it. If each of them buy it, they may 70c total, but if they can charge 50c for both people, they make a dollar.

The point is that Microsoft is trying to milk everyone for more than they're worth. Israel isn't doing anything wrong beyond saying "why are we choosing Microsoft if their support is sub-par. Why shouldn't we find a better prices solution that is completely compatible". Microsoft has to be competative (with free) or convince more lemmings to follow them off the cliff.

-M