Le Juillet 16, 2002 02:03 PM, vous avez �crit : > On July 16, 2002 01:46 pm, you wrote: > > Sorry for this rant, but stuff like this really makes me mad (and a > > little discouraged) and I figured people here could sympathize with me a > > bit :). > > It makes me mad too, Bill. On the other hand, you have to sympathize with > governments, especially poor ones like Peru taking whatever is given to > them. Perhaps the real problem here is that the group of four (a.k.a. > United Linux) or Red Hat hadn't made the same offer *before* Microsoft > could get in. I haven't read enough on it yet, but I'm wondering if the > deal locks out other providers or is just a donation with no-strings > attached (I know, seems unlikely with M$). > > It also appears that the Peruvian government wasn't behind the interest in > moving to Open Source, just one congressman, hence the apparent > contradiction. I'm guessing that political concerns weigh heavier here than > Microsoft's commitment. From what I read in another article, the > president's support is flagging. President Toledo needed a supplier for his > government project (which didn't have open source software in mind > specifically) and wanted a big name attached to it -- "Look at the big > Americano corporation that I got to throw us big bucks", etc.
And you're not talking about American agencies expecting to steal the last peruvian business&military secrets :-) Politically, > using open source would be seen as more of a risky political move. > Microsoft is doing more of the old trick -- give the schools free software > and equipment and then milk them for the licensing fees later. Hopefully > the government says "bye, bye, M$, thanks for the gravy train" when the > license fees kick in, and the gov't switches to open source. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
