Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

U.S. Justice Dept. Chooses Corel over Microsoft

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-they'll-even-use-open-formats dept.

peg0cjs writes "The Justice Department, which challenged Microsoft Corp. in courtrooms for nearly a decade over antitrust violations, will pay more than $2 million each year to buy business software from Corel Corp, according to this article from CANOE. 'The Justice Department will make WordPerfect software available to more than 20 organizations inside the agency, but not the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration, which use Microsoft's Office business software exclusively, said Mary Aileen O'Donovan, a program manager in the Justice Management Division.' According to the article, the deal is worth up to $13.2 million over five years for Ontario-based Corel. Has sanity finally set in, or is this just a blip in Microsoft's dominance in controlling government software decisions?"

7 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hrm. by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. Because when this eval and bid process was started, OOo was not really a viable alternative.
    2. Support contract.
    3. Being able to pay a single source for training materials.

  2. Reference... by Animaether · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?c ourt=7th&navby=case&no=991754A

  3. Re:Hahaha - incorrect by Andre060 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You have not been keeping up with the news. Microsoft sold all their Corel shares a few years ago (which, by the way, were a special non-voting kind so they had no say in how Corel ran their business). Now Corel is 100% private, owned by San Francisco venture capitalists Vector Capital.

  4. Re:Doesn't MS own Corel? by Andre060 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope, MS sold their shares a few years ago. Corel is private now, owned by Vector Capital of san francisco.

    Note MS's Corel shares were a special non-voting kind, which means they had no say in Corel's decision to exit the linux business.

  5. Don't look for sanity... by javaxman · · Score: 3, Informative
    If you look at TFA, it mentions near the end that not only do they also buy MS Office anyway ( your tax dollars at work! ), but the Justice department is also trying to get people to use IE.

    No sanity there...

  6. Re:Alt-F3 Tells All by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 4, Informative
    Or, rather, it actually does mean what I think it means.

    No, it doesn't. There is a distinct difference between something being standard, which is what you looked up, and The Standard, which is what you said.

  7. Courts require filings in PDF, not WPD by guanxi · · Score: 4, Informative
    From the article:
    U.S. courts require all electronic filings to be submitted as WordPerfect documents

    That's not true: Federal Courts I know of require PDF.

    My wife works for a Federal Appeals court; they use WordPerfect internally but require PDF filings.

    Some clients are law firms; all their court filings are in PDF.