Los Angeles to Consider Open Source Software

lientz writes "According to an article at FederalComputerWeek, the city of Los Angeles is considering using Open Source software as a cost cutting measure. From the article: "...city officials could save $5.2 million by switching to OpenOffice... rather than purchasing a Microsoft Office product at $200 per license for 26,000 desktops. The savings would go to a special fund to hire more employees for the police department, a major focus for city officials right now, he added.""

Comments

Police is good

[Space_Soldier]

I would rather have more police officers than Microsoft Office licences. If the federal government did this, I wonder how many FBI agents, CIA agents, NSA agents, radiation-proof suits, and other goodies could be bought!

Re:Police is good

[venicebeach]

Remember, these are Los Angeles police officers. Do you really want more of those?

Re:Police is good

[Lehk228]

you...are...suprised that the government wastes money? you ust be new here*

*Here = planet earth and all of human history

Re: Heh

[Black Parrot]

> Now watch microsoft drop that price from 200$ to 10$....

I don't know about that. I called a press conference and announced that I was going to play Doom instead of Age of Empires, and I didn't get one red cent out of the cheap bastards.

Re: You get what you pay for

[Black Parrot]

> Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and all the rest, these programs actually work.

Get an account, Bill.

Microsoft Response

[AfterSchoolSpecial]

"The savings would go to a special fund to hire more employees for the police department, a major focus for city officials right now."

Steve B. (Or Bill G.): "You see, open source makes you less safe and secure than windows products...oh wait...crap."

Let's start spreading our own FUD

[britneys 9th husband]

What does a cop make, about 52k/year or so? We need to start fighting fire with fire. Here's the new FUD we can start spreading against Microsoft:

Through its licensing fee structure, Microsoft tried to take 100 police officers off the streets of Los Angeles.

This is outrageous!

[callipygian-showsyst]

As someone who's earned a good living writing computer software and managing software projects over the past 25 years, I'm outraged about this move to "Free Software".

The Government wouldn't be able to get away with replacing other workers and contractors with unpaid volunteers--why should people who write software for a living be treated any differently?

What's especially troubling is that this move is motivated by some off-beat political agenda that makes it unpopular to support American industry like Microsoft and Oracle in exchange for using second-rate software developed by kids overseas.

I tried and rejected Open Office. It is an inferior product.

Re: Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Calling mom & dad down to the basement is not what I would describe as "calling a pres conference" :)

Re:Negotiating Ploy?

[Requiem Aristos]

Yes, but you actually /looked/ for the missing menu item. Most of your average users will see that the option they want is missing, and will sit there waving their flippers like a thalidomide baby until they get a half hour retraining session for that one option.

Re:Negotiating Ploy?

[Lehk228]

sit there waving their flippers like a thalidomide baby

Can I steal that line?

Re:Negotiating Ploy?

[slam smith]

I think the better question is how did WordPerfect manage to lose to Microsoft.