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."

Comments

Re:Don't waste my money!

[jhanderson]

Someone please mod parent up!

Re:Don't waste my money!

[plasmacutter]

If you think the current destruction of the middle class is not the result of pure corporate greed you have blinders on. The truth is at least half if not a good 60% of economic hardship is a result of corruption somewhere, from discriminatory disadvantage to high profile corporate intrigue to everyday office politics. I have met very few people who are truly as lazy as the preachy arch-conservatives claim.

As far as welfare is concerned, the current welfare system is well below the poverty line. It doesn't help that bankruptcy protections for everday citizens, especially people who gambled on college, have been gutted, and that major companies don't reward loyalty, and only marginally reward education at this point. (for example: see hardcore engineering vs climbing the ladder straight out of high school, also see: "train your indian replacement or no severance pay")

Part of the failures of the social programs we have today is conservatives, out of personal bias against the poor for the reasons outlined above, in addition to a personal desire to see such programs fail, sabotage them rather than contribute substantive but productive checks to their unnecessary use.

For example: refusing to make good on initial or continued funding by, for example sneakily making sure the initial legislation does not track with inflation.

A good example of a responsible republican input would be to insist that, following proper funding for initial launch, social services be non profits whenever possible (universal healthcare as a self-sustaining, tax-exempt,non-profit,government founded organization rather than a tax-based "social security" organization)

So far as "penalizing" the rich: see the journal article in my sig. The wealthy gain a lot more from most government provided services than the poor, and they can also afford to pay more than the poor without noticeable change in lifestyle. It's possible to tax the rich without imposing outright wealth caps.