Minnesota Moving To Microsoft's Cloud

An anonymous reader writes "The State of Minnesota is apparently the first state to move into the cloud, agreeing on a deal to have their messaging and collaboration services delivered through Microsoft's Business Online Productivity Suite. The thing the article doesn't tell you in detail is that the agreement precludes the use of open source software, which could have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars. And once such a large organization goes Microsoft, it's difficult to go back. Isn't it interesting that these developments occur right before elections, as senior officials are trying to keep their jobs with a new incoming administration? What do you think, Slashdotters? Is this a good move for Minnesota? Or a conservative move that bucks the trend of saving money and encouraging open government and transparency by aligning philosophy and practice with at least the option of utilizing open source software?"

Comments

Re:Minnesota Values...

[MickyTheIdiot]

It's not "wasteful spending" when the money is going to one of you close corporate buddies.

Re:Initial cost is a small piece of the cost

[HisMother]

> What FOSS advocates never seem to get is there is a reason why companies like MSFT get these contracts,

Hookers and blow, is what I've heard.