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Los Angeles to Consider Open Source Software

Posted by Zonk on from the penguins-in-the-valley dept.

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.""

6 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Now watch microsoft drop that price from 200$ to 10$....

    I can just smell it on the air.

    1. Re:Heh by goon+america · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, just watch a swarm of Microsoft lobbyists descend upon the city, donating enough to local politicians to equal the amount they would save in the city budget by switching to Open Office. This solves the real problem for both parties, which for the politicos is not the city budget but the campaign budget, and for Microsoft is not profits but control.

  2. Negotiating Ploy? by mordors9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It just sounds like a good way to get M$ to lower their licensing fees.

    1. Re:Negotiating Ploy? by mordors9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The general acceptance by the world as THE office suite? Most school systems use MS Office for teaching students, so the possible employee base is more likely to be familiar with it than OpenOffice. And no I am not a MS fan, I use Slack for my home desktop. But you have to accept reality, while hoping it changes.

  3. Typical tactic by null+etc. · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is the typical tactic used by governments in order to get Microsoft running back to their doorsteps, courting them with low prices.

    There's nothing to see here, move along.

  4. And a fine tactic it is. by Noksagt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact that Microsoft cowtows to tactics like this by lowering their prices gives legitimacy to OpenOffice.org. If MS didn't view F/OSS as a viable thread, they wouldn't lower prices--they'd pull strong-arm tactics and say "yeah--good luck with that. When your migration fails, you can come back and give us the same deal as we are proposing now."

    Lowering prices not only validates OO.o as a useable alternative, but also proves that F/OSS is a truly disruptive technology--MS can't get away with charging what they want to anymore.