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Free Software Wins Court Battle in Quebec

Posted by kdawson on from the one-judge-not-bought dept.

courteaudotbiz writes "In a court battle in the province of Quebec, Canada, initiated more than two years ago, free software activists Savoir Faire Linux (translated 'Linux know-how') won the right to submit offers (Google translation; original French version) when the government takes public requests for submissions to replace its desktop operating systems and office suites. This opens the possibility in the future of replacing Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office in favor of Linux and OpenOffice.org, or any other operating system and office productivity suite. In his judgment, the magistrate said that the government acted illegally when it discarded the proposal of Savoir Faire Linux for replacing Windows XP with a Linux distribution."

1 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bravo to FACIL, Cyrille and his team! by mrclisdue · · Score: 0, Troll

    As a Canadian, I can say I'm proud that somewhere in the country some semblance of common sense prevails.

    But we still have a long, long, way to go.

    I drove alone with a First Nations' elder just 4 nights ago - for over 90 minutes. During the conversation I offered to donate as many PCs, loaded with Slackware, and whatever else they needed, including legitimate MS and related software (virtually, of course), with full 24/7 support for the OS....

    My offer was dismissed in milliseconds, and I think he stopped listening at free and open source, but I could be wrong. One of his reasons was that someone on the reserve was sort of already doing something like that (erm...for $$profit$$, natch...)

    This, on a reserve where the young adults and teens huff gasoline....where 70% of the residents live below poverty level...even in the non-reserve area, within 100kms, 40% of the young adults live below poverty level.

    Believe me, I'm trying, but the MS cancer cuts deep.

    regards,