I live in Houston, and have been following this story for some time. Microsoft had NOTHING to do with this; the real story is that SimDesk has allegedly bribed a former City Technology Manager to railroad the SimDesk software through the bidding process. Allegations include giving an eight day window between releasing the bid criteria and the city council making their decision. Allegedly, only SimDesk had a preview of the criteria and thusly ample time to answer the call. The previous Tech Manager resigned the day after SimDesk was awarded the contract, and moved to (I believe) San Francisco, where he is being investigated for his Houston activities. As I can't read the story, I don't know if the Microsoft spin is from the article or the submitter, but this isn't a Microsoft story, nor is it an Open Source story. This is just another possible corruption story.
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I live in Houston, and have been following this story for some time. Microsoft had NOTHING to do with this; the real story is that SimDesk has allegedly bribed a former City Technology Manager to railroad the SimDesk software through the bidding process. Allegations include giving an eight day window between releasing the bid criteria and the city council making their decision. Allegedly, only SimDesk had a preview of the criteria and thusly ample time to answer the call. The previous Tech Manager resigned the day after SimDesk was awarded the contract, and moved to (I believe) San Francisco, where he is being investigated for his Houston activities. As I can't read the story, I don't know if the Microsoft spin is from the article or the submitter, but this isn't a Microsoft story, nor is it an Open Source story. This is just another possible corruption story.