I never believe anything that comes from the register.. but that's just me.
-A On October 14, 2003 12:56 pm, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
Poor, poor, Microsloth... ;-)
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-10-14-019-26-NW-MS-PB
We'll have to see exactly what it is that Isreal will do here. The news is definitely encouraging.
I will try to help here by translating excerpts from an article that currently appears on the online version of an Israeli daily:
"The Finance Ministry announced today that it suspends the agreement with the software giant Microsoft for the purchase and upgrade of software (mainly for personal computers) for the government ministries. The reason for the decision is mainly monetary, but it also has to do with the way Microsoft products are priced and the government's computer infrastructure.
At the beginning of 2001, the government signed a 3 year agreement with Microsoft which will come to an end at the end of the current year. The agreement allowed the government to use Microsoft software for a yearly fee.
According to the Finance Ministry the agreement may have had a negative impact for the selection of certain products due to the fact that the agreement requires the purchase of packages of software. Also, the recent cuts in the budget of the government ministries impacts the ability to finance the agreement.
Another reason for the suspension of the agreement is the plan the government has for a wide use of alternative software, mainly Sun's Open Office.
The price of these software products is much lower then Microsoft's software. It should also be noted that lately Sun Israel with the help of IBM and others is investing much effort to make Open Office work reasonably well in Hebrew, something that will allow the software to compete with Microsoft's in the Israeli market.
There is also plan to move the government ministries to use Open Source software. This means the wide use of the Linux OS and software running under Linux."
I hope this clarifies the matter somewhat. Even though no mention is made of Antitrust, it is still encouraging to see the government of Israel thinking of using Linux to cut cost. Recently there have been huge cuts in the government budget and when there is little money, people start looking at Linux.
Avi
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