The point I am missing here - we might not like M$ to have won, but who else could? It is a government, so think big companies. Would you rather it was Symantec or IBM? Or think about the big systems integrators EDS and CSC style <yuk> would that be much better? Smaller players like Veridian or Secureinfo - would we be served any better if they could actually make themselves credible? Nah, don't think so - it was bound to be a big one. Big organisations want big suppliers....
If we're wishing...
I'd rather my government hire the IT personnel themselves and do their own <insert favorite OSS OS here> distro, with the help of the smart guys from the NSA, etc... for security standards. Surely it's possible to get your return on nearly whatever investment it takes to make it functions as need, for 140K desktops. This would also drive application development for that OS, etc, etc... Basically, I'd get something back for my "investment". As it is, my tax money is going to a close-source developer, and I don't see myself benefiting from my tax dollars. I'm not even getting a discount on my next version of Windows or Office.
BB
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