Savva I also considered the court solution but we may face some difficulties:
1) The law regarding tenders for the public says that it is forbidden for a tender to ¨photograph¨ a certain program UNLESS it is imposed by the technical know how. The window for exception is there and they will of course claim that this is the software the teachers are using. 2) We are not an official organisation yet. We need to push things forward to that direction. 3) We do not have the funds too go to court unless anyone of us happens to know a lawyer that embraces the Free Software ideals. I am not against the idea of going to court but first we should educate about FOSS. We are trying to persuade them to give them a seminar regarding the educational perspective of Linux. This effort will fail if we go to court. Savvas Radevic wrote: > People, we already have a response for help: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Jan Husar <[email protected]> > Date: Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 3:58 PM > Subject: Re: Ubuntu-cy reacts to laptop funding pre-installed with > Vista for high school students > To: "Ubuntu local community team (LoCo) contacts" > <[email protected]> > Cc: Cypriot Ubuntu LoCo Team <[email protected]> > > > Hello, > > > I can try to force them to answer via the pernament representation in > Brussels, > > I do that next week, please forward me the names who are responsible for > that decision, e.g. directors, attachees, > > > deal here is following, > > what money is going to be spend on this "funding", > for sure it's tax payers money, but is it CY? EU? > this we need to find out, and we need to push the problem > that they are preferably selecting a vendor and thus > the competition rules should apply here... > > In such cases you can even go to court with your government, over > not following public procurement rules and competition rules by favoring > one vendor > > -- > ----------------------------------- > | Jan Husar > | > | doing what matters > > > On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Savvas Radevic <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The Government of Cyprus / Ministry of Education has recently decided >> to fund high school students to buy a laptop. The funding will be >> about 400 EUR for each student. The website and more information about >> this is unfortunately posted in Greek: >> http://www.moec.gov.cy/ekpaideutiki_metarrythmisi/index.html >> >> The problem is that they have set a strict requirement, that laptops >> would come pre-installed with Windows Vista operating system. >> >> A local newspaper has reacted to this (in Greek): >> http://www.politis-news.com/cgibin/hweb?-A=840834&-V=archive&-w=VISTA@&-P >> >> Members of our local community have strictly opposed to the fact that >> the laptops would come with Windows Vista (in Greek): >> http://ghadjikyriacou.blogspot.com/2008/12/vista.html >> http://ctrl-alt-backspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_13.html >> http://ctrl-alt-backspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/laptop.html >> >> Theodotos Andreou of the Ubuntu-cy local community has recently sent a >> letter (by mail and electronic mail) to the Ministry of Education >> requesting a specific reason to the question "Why Vista?". >> Furthermore, he requested to leave the choice for the students to >> decide whether they would want a Macintosh, Windows or GNU/Linux >> installed. >> He also included numerous reasons about a more convenient choice of a >> Linux-based operating system, including freedom, speed, stability and >> price, which make a Linux operating system a much better solution for >> educational purposes. >> The email has been posted in our mailing list (in Greek): >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-cy/2008-December/000154.html >> http://n2.nabble.com/%CE%93%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%AF-Vista--td1672094.html >> >> The same letter has been forwarded to major media stations in Cyprus >> and has been posted today (Sunday, January 11th 2009): >> http://www.scribd.com/doc/10061438/123165639623481-wwwpolitisnewscom >> http://pdf.politis-news.com/pdf/pdf?-A=132214&-V=pdfedition >> >> The Ministry has not replied to the letter, neither acknowledging nor >> acquiring more information about it. >> >> -- >> loco-contacts mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts >> >> > > -- > loco-contacts mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts > -- Ubuntu-cy mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-cy
