Open Source In Public Sector Meeting Opposition 425
Open Source movements have been gaining popularity everywhere, but not everyone is happy about that. Johans wrote to mention a ZDNet Asia story discussing a controversy within the Malaysian computer industry over the government's 'Public Sector Open Source Software Masterplan. From the article: " ... the government has stated that its first choice in IT procurement are infocomm technology solutions developed on the open-source platform. It states that 'in situations where advantages and disadvantages of open-source software (OSS) and proprietary software are equal, preference shall be given to OSS' ... However, some industry consortiums have stepped out to voice their concerns over this policy." Meanwhile, Anonymous Coward wrote to mention a Fox News article entitled 'Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument', calling the attention of journalists to the 'huge mistake' that Massachusetts is making by switching to OpenDocument. From that article: "Officials in the state have proposed a new policy that mandates that every state technology system use only applications designed around OpenDocument file formats. Such a policy might seem like something that should concern only a small group of technology professionals, but in fact the implications are staggering and far-reaching. The policy promises to burden taxpayers with new costs and to disrupt how state agencies interact with citizens, businesses and organizations."
How so? (Score:2, Interesting)
Does this Anonymous Coward has any studies done that show going towards Open document is a burden to tax payers? I can make a same clain without doing any studies. In the short term it may involve new costs but I think in the long term, it makes cheaper for not having to pay for commercial software licenses. This may be a benefit to the tax payers. How's that?
FOX... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, open standards hurt innovation. You know, it's not like groups like ANSI exist to try to re-standardize fractured languages with open standards that have evolved quickly and represent what the people who are using the language want. But hey, it's not like any language with an open standard ever caught on (C, C++, LISP, Ruby, etc.)
But you know, FOX most likely says that evolution is evil too. At least, as far as the public (schools) are involved...
Wake up call (Score:2, Interesting)
In short, wake up - Fox "news" is feeding you B.S.
Americans for Technology Leadership (Score:2, Interesting)
Before everybody goes crazy about the Fox News article, consider the source. American for Tech Leadership is a what it amounts to a PAC for different tech companies. Guess who is one of their major contibutors??
You guessed it, Microsoft.
http://www.techleadership.org/about/ [techleadership.org]
So don't act all surprised when you see what amounts to a Microsoft spokesperson saying that Open Source formats are going to "cost too much" or "take too much effort". Fox News should be ashamed to run this "ad" as a news story; but when I come to think of it, everybody else does it too.
The PROOF is in the .... (Score:3, Interesting)
While I feel sad that such pains must be endured, I'm glad to see the MS machine slowing down, losing some ground, and perhaps looking a bit pale in the face.
Relative FUD ? (Score:5, Interesting)
the great thing about having an uncommon name like Ms Strzalkowski [tripod.com] quoted in the article, is that a quick Google search for Strzalkowski and Microsoft reveals a certain Tomek Strzalkowski [microsoft.com] who appears to be friendly with the Beast. I wonder if they know each other?
Open Source is BAD! M'Kay?! (Score:3, Interesting)
No where in the FOXNews.com article did James Prendergast list a specific complain against what OpenDocument doesn't have to offer. He has some quotes about how "[Open Office Calc] takes more than 100 times longer to create and load spreadsheet documents and why it uses up several more times memory that Microsoft Excel to work with the same data" and how "Microsoft keeps expanding into XML and metadata and OpenDocument may have trouble keeping up." If you read the article, you get this feeling this guy is a frothing, super-capitalist munchdog who really rates communism. Those FASCISTS!
Seriously though, my take is that "open" standards foster competition but can supress innovation when they are unable to grow and adapt. I'm not familiar enough with OpenDocument to really comment, but I do wonder how it stacks up, feature and architecture-wise against say WordOffice/PDF. Is OpenDocument really that far away from XML and metadata? Seriously...
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:5, Interesting)
Americans for Technology Leadership was founded by Jonathan Zuck in 1999 as a "grassroots" organisations for concerned consumers who want less regulation in the technology sector. It also campaigns on general tech issues such as spam.
It has been frequently described as a Microsoft front group.
ATL's domain name, techleadership.org, is registered to the Association for Competitive Technology. The site is hosted by Thomas E. Stock and Thomas J. Synhorst's LLC, TSE Enterprises. Synhorst is a founding member of the DCI Group, a Washington DC-based strategic consulting and lobbying firm which has counted Microsoft as a prime client for a number of years.
MSFT Has The Most To Lose From Malaysian OSS Plan (Score:4, Interesting)
"Our views as represented by Pikom, are that the government should not dictate which development model--OSS or commercial--should be the preference for procurement," said Peter Moore, Microsoft's general manager for public policy, Asia-Pacific and Greater China.
As you can see from the evidence here, the voice that's being heard "through Pikom" is actually Microsoft's.
If the government chooses to move to an OSS operating system like Linux, Microsoft loses control over us. Malaysian application software developers actually have nothing to fear, because the govt is not going to lock out closed-source. It'll just have a preference for OSS programs if it fulfills the same function as a closed-sourced one. Meaning, locally developed custom apps are always going to be better-suited to the customer (the government), open or closed source. However, if Linux or FreeBSD got around to being the standard underlying operating system, Microsoft and its cronies would lose out big time, as it would lose it's control (but we would get our sovereignity, so who cares about Microsoft).
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:5, Interesting)
Massachusetts Taxpayers (Score:2, Interesting)
Fox News is asking the wrong question (Score:2, Interesting)
Reports always conclude with COST! (Score:1, Interesting)
articles revolving around the switch to open source, however,
conclusions always magically turn their focus to the
COST of switching to OSS. (TCO and ROI)
How quickly we all forget about the financial investment our
companies and organizations have made in order to switch over
to MS Office(however many years ago). Don't you dare forget
about these financial numbers, because Microsoft already has;
their comparisons don't account for your past software
investment with MS.
Take a moment to calculate the total accumulated $$$ dollars
spent for the initial installation and training for Microsoft
suites back in the day, and then add the accumulated cost
of license renewals over the years that your company has
had MS Office software.
Once you have your accumulated costs tabulated, then we can
compare apples to apples.
The average person quickly forgets that their companies computer
budgets have been spent in supporting MS Office for the
workplace("number of licenses" x "years installed"), and this shows
that the MS Office TCO is not free.
Most news reports always compare the ROI and TCO of MS products based
on "already installed MS Office installations" against future
migration to a different(O.S.S.) product.
This is so far wrong, and it also isn't fair. Get the facts
straight for once!
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:3, Interesting)
Missed it by THAT much... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not quite. It's to make it easier to insure that they can continue to do so, regardless of any future idiocy by any one vendor. Naming no names, of course....
Re:MSFT Has The Most To Lose From Malaysian OSS Pl (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:1, Interesting)
And therein lies the insult to the taxpaying populace by the holier-than-all-others anti-Microsoft Open Sore movement: that Microsoft should dance to their tune and fark the people in the meantime until they do.
Fact: the majority of computer users interacting with the state of MA are Windows users.
Fact: anything the state of MA does to make those users' times harder to access state documents is an imposition on THEM and NOT Microsoft.
This is "the movement" showing its true colors as petty and pathetic bullies, using one of the worst tactics to get their way: beat the weakest down and tell them they will stop being beaten when they all turn on this one other party and follow the one doing the beating. Hurting a large group just to get at one group, using those people as an intermediary because you have no ground to stand on, no strategy of note, and no argument of merit and thus take the coward's way out and attack your opponent by going after innocents.
This is the tech world's equivalent of terrorism. Can't take on Microsoft? Losing to them? So use the political process which the geek brigades claim to hate and distrust to get your way, impose on Microsoft's customer base, and force Microsoft to do things your way by influencing that base. No different in structure and strategy than killing innocent civilians because you're too much the coward to fight a stand-up battle with uniformed troops in the open.
The Open Source world is dishonoring themselves by stooping to these tactics and I firmly expect they won't ever learn this. If they were even remotely capable of it, they might have expended their energies on coming up with a product that competed with those of Microsoft that the people actually wanted to buy. But since the people have voted with their pocketbooks for Microsoft, and done so in droves, force your way on them anyhow using government and manipulation of every situation.
More and more my disgust for Microsoft lessens and grows for its detractors. More and more, they replace Microsoft for me as the biggest threat to the IT world going forward. Not content to either do what it takes to win fairly or lose gracefully, they instead use the same tactics they accuse Microsoft of and engage in the holy effrontery of the self-righteous. Way to promote Open Source with honor there, people.
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How difficult is it for MS to just... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pendergast is a lobbyist. (Score:2, Interesting)