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Quebec Govt Sued For Ignoring Free Software
Mathieu Lutfy writes "The CBC is reporting that 'Quebec's open-source software association is suing the provincial government, saying it is giving preferential treatment to Microsoft Corp. by buying the company's products rather than using free alternatives. ... Government buyers are using an exception in provincial law that allows them to buy directly from a proprietary vendor when there are no options available, but Facil said that loophole is being abused and goes against other legal requirements to buy locally.' The group also has a press release in English."
Each license bought allows for tech support from Microsoft. Is there any such tech support from open source developers? Usually not.
When you have tax dollars freely available, cutting costs matter little when expedience for bureaucrats is much more important.
That's right! they're pissing away money!
I have another example too! I made this free database program and they wouldn't buy it either! Of course the only guy who knows how to set up my program wanted a seven digit income, none of their people are trained, and there is some assembly required but damnit, my program had a
much lower retail price! They're ripping themselves off by not using it!
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Americans, are we just going to let the government spend our money?? How can we help!?
Ah, yes, let's force everyone to use open source software with its horrible aesthetics, near-constant crashing on Windows-installed PCs, impenetrable user setup from download to configuration and non-existent technical support. Example? I can't count the number of times I had to eventually save my OpenOffice file as a Microsoft Word Document and open it in Word only to find that I had to do a whole bunch of reformatting before sending it to the library printer! People should be glad their school is encouraging kids to use professionally made software that doesn't try and bully them into the stone-age with interface design that's about 10 years behind proprietary software.
Frivolous lawsuits are much less common in Canada. In the US, if you spill hot coffee on your lap you can sue for millions. In Canada, you can sue for the cost of a new cup of coffee.
You expect him to say he ain't interested cuz it's crap? Free software is invariably, without exception, to
a rule, crap software. I rest my case !!
(I do believe free software is useful, for third-world countries like Zimbabwae, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and most of Russia. But those with money should not waste their time, which is more valuable than anything else.)
Unless mommy lets you sit at the adult table and you're using something like Shavlik or GFI, which blows linux out of the water for update management.
Yes they're third party. Yes they cost money. Yes they save time, enhance security, and enhance overall productivity. It's called the real world. Deal.
I'm a project manager (IT). And let me tell you something : while open office is great for power user, it's a nightmare for the average user.
We've just finish upgrading office to 2003, and it took 3 years ⦠most of it because people had a hard time getting use to the new interface and still do (Yes I know the interface barely changed) . It was a nightmare and cost us a fortune to support this, even if microsoft gave us more help that you can imagine. I've evaluated that changing to open office (without considering all the macro updates, the conversions problems and all) would cost us 3 time what we've just spent (and I'm talking in millions CAD) because of all the training require . And you want a gouvernement to switch to an all new system? Have fun training everyone, that's going to take a decade, and then you'll have different minister running different programs because option A as better color than B(Someone tried to have us install a software in all the company because his 10 year old " computer wizard " said it was better. And you guess it, that magical software included a virus) .
You have to think of interoperationability. Buy only M$ can save a (censor) load of trouble in file conversion and implatation. And seriously, you can forget support. How many company will support 5 or 6 softwares from different source? Not that many, and you don't want to have to sign contract with 20 companies just to keep stuff running because if something brake they always blame the others. I wish I could run open office and Linux on every machine, but it's not realist to think we'll save money.
People still answer to spam and download anything, write their password on post-it and you expect them to be able tu uses a open-source system that will requiere third party support? It works for a small company, but in the big league you have to choose the easy solution, and most people are use to m$ product, so you actually save money when compared with the other options.
*nix? Sorry, no. The kids and the faculty are all used to Windows which, whether you like it or not, is the de facto standard in computing (yes, over 90% means that it's the standard). Usability--and, even today, Linux's usability sucks, just go read LinuxHater's blog for an assload of examples--is more important to an organization targeting those who aren't computer-savvy (and those accustomed to a way of doing things) than price.
And Dell/Microsoft's educational offerings are dirt-cheap.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."