On Fri, 17 May 2002 23:48:39 +0100, Derek Byram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Friday 17 May 2002 21:47, you wrote:
> > On Friday 17 May 2002 07:20 am, Lyvim Xaphir wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2002-05-16 at 15:02, Kaj Haulrich wrote:
> > > > Lyvim, what makes you think the American government is so special ?
> > > >
> > > > Kaj Haulrich
> > > > Denmark
> > >
> > > There's no intimation here that this is an isolated case, Kaj. I just
> > > don't have any comprehensive data on other government's right or wrong
> > > doings.
> > >
> > > LX
> >
> > Lyvim, I can assure you that the danish government is no better, if that
> > can comfort you. It is "owned" by Micro$oft. However, let's not get too
> > depressed. By and by things seems to develop :
> >
> > In France there's a strong movement towards open-source, i.e. the french
> > government has proposed just that to the European Union. We'll see....
> >
> > In Germany, the parliament ("Bundestag") recently moved from Bonn to
> > Berlin. The new building (in fact : the old one) needed an IT-system, so
> > the parliament initiated a feasability-study : Micro$oft / Open Source.
> > We'll see...
> >
> > In Norway (who somehow always seems a little smarter than Denmark) Linux
> > has a good stronghold : think of Qt (TrollTech) and Opera. Both are
> > commercial companies that Micro$oft hasn't been able to crush. Yet ...?
> >
> > And don't forget : corporations mightier than any nation-state use Linux
> > (Shell, BP, General Motors, Toyota etc.. etc...).
> >
> > Cheers !
> >
> > Kaj Haulrich
> > Denmark
>
> MMMM,
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong BUT isn't my Government (especially Phoney Blair)
> toadying up to Gates after the offer of assistance of subsidised computers
> with M$ as the OS in British schools???
>
> Hadn't ever linked the two till following this thread...
>
> Hold my hand someone, I'm scared.
Tony has been sucking up to Microsoft for a while now. The last time Bill Gates
visited, he was treated like royalty, and Tony was even at the product launch of
Office XP as part of his election campaign. Apparently, the gateway.gov.uk site,
which is part of the e-government initiative to put all government services
online, is fully _owned_ by Microsoft, intellectual property and all. When it
was first set up, all users of 'alternative' (read: non-IE) browsers were locked
out, and it took heavy complaining to change it. After the site was set up, MS
released an advertisement featuring the government people behind the project
(including an MP or two), who said things like "I will always use Microsoft".
Not that the Australian government is much better. Prime Minister John Howard
bent over backwards to meet with Bill Gates the last time he was here, yet he
totally ignored Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison when they visited.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead
all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that
it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first
place." -- Douglas Adams
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
