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Microsoft Lobby Denies the State of Chile Access To Free Software

Posted by Soulskill on from the lockin-leverage-legislate dept.

walterbyrd writes: Fresh on the heels of the entire Munich and Linux debacle, another story involving Microsoft and free software has popped up across the world, in Chile. A prolific magazine from the South American country says that the powerful Microsoft lobby managed to turn around a law that would allow the authorities to use free software. "An independent member of the Chilean Parliament, Vlado Mirosevic, pushed a bill that would allow the state to consider free software when the authorities needed to purchase or renew licenses. ... A while later, the same member of the Parliament, Daniel Farcas, proposed another bill that actually nullified the effects of the previous one that had just been adopted. To make things even more interesting, some of the people who voted in favor of the first law also voted in favor of the second one. ... The new bill is even more egregious, because it aggressively pushes for the adoption of proprietary software. Companies that choose to use proprietary software will receive certain tax breaks, which makes it very hard for free software to get adopted."

4 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. What "Munich Linux debacle"?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Munich isn't ditching Linux.

    Not often that SN gets the drop on /., they must be improving.

    http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/08/21/0836239

    1. Re:What "Munich Linux debacle"?? by Teun · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Exactly!

      There's a vice-mayor that heard stories of some city workers having trouble with the compatibility of certain file formats and he wants an investigation into it.

      This says nothing about the Linux OS or something else OSS being ditched, it doesn't even mean he's getting his investigation!

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  2. Re:Microsoft cannot compete in the marketplace... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd argue that using windows is easier for most people than it is using Linux....

    Why is Microsoft afraid of allowing the marketplace to decide?

  3. Re:Microsoft cannot compete in the marketplace... by walterbyrd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > I'd argue that using windows is easier for most people than it is using Linux.

    Why? When I want to launch a browser, I click the browser icon. What is so difficult? When I want to print, I can clink the printer icon. And so on. I would say it is *much* easier to go from Win7 to Gnome2, than from Win7 to Win8. People keep posting about Linux being difficult to use. Why? What is so difficult about it?

    > Not to mention, they would need to retrain all their personal to use linux

    You mean like having to retrain people to use Win8? Win8 is radically different than previous versions of Windows. How about retraining people to that "ribbon" crap in ms-office. Why is it: if somebody does not want to learn the new MS whatever, that person is lazy and stupid. But, nobody should suffer the burden of learning Linux?

    > make their own variant for security purpose

    What?

    > and then actually Support that version of linux. In the end, that would cost too much.

    What makes you think so? What makes you think supporting Linux would cost more than supporting Windows?