Israel Stops Buying Micro$oft SW

Dimurgeon

No artifical fillers added.
The EU is studying open source, half of Asia is studying open source, and now Israel has slammed the gates on Bill.

All I have to say is MUHAHAHA! :aheadbng:

Story from MyWay.com :

By PETER ENAV

JERUSALEM (AP) - In an apparent showdown over price, Israel's government has suspended purchases of Microsoft productivity software and is encouraging the development of an open source alternative.

A spokeswoman for the Finance Ministry, which oversees government purchases, said Tuesday that government agencies would use existing Microsoft Office products for the time being rather than upgrade to newer versions.

The Israeli government also will encourage the development of lower-priced alternatives to Microsoft software in an effort to help expand computer use by the public.

To that end, the Finance Ministry has cooperated with Sun Microsystems and IBM in designing the Hebrew language version of OpenOffice software, a freely distributed open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.

"The move with Microsoft was a purely economic decision," said the Finance Ministry spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The Israeli government will not be purchasing new products from Microsoft, but will implement its contract to secure existing systems."

"On a policy level, the government is committed to expanding computer use. We want open source technology to spread, so more people will be able to afford computers," she said.

The spokeswoman said the government was unhappy with Microsoft's refusal to sell individual programs from its standard Office package, which includes an e-mail client, spreadsheet and word-processing applications. Not all departments require the entire suite of programs, she said.

Microsoft representatives in Israel did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

The Israeli move comes amid growing public sector interest in open source, or non-proprietary, software led by the Linux operating system.

Some federal agencies in France, China and Germany, as well as the city government of Munich, have opted to use Linux not just on servers but also on individual workstations. Entire national governments, including those in Britain, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, are exploring open source alternatives to Microsoft.

Governments are a huge software market, accounting for about 10 percent of global information technology spending, according to research firm IDC.

Federal, state and local governments in the United States spent $34 billion last year on huge systems to track everything from tax collection to fishing licenses.
 

samcurry

The King
Staff member
Its just to bad the US isnt smart enough to do the same. MAYBE then M$ would see the errors of their ways.
A couple other countries have taken the same steps and i believe thay are doing far better than when their souls were owned by M$.
 

PuterTutor

New Member
You work with Users though Sammy, can you imagine telling them that they have to stop using Word and start using something else? The Helpdesk calls would be enormous for the first few days, then people would do stupid shit just cause they know they can blame the new software. Users are so Stupid.
 

samcurry

The King
Staff member
this is soooo true PT. but hey i can dream.
i should really try and use only linux and freeware totally on my laptop and see if i can cope without M$ and IE6 for our new software.
Dimurgeon think this can be done with the new ERP8?
 

Dimurgeon

No artifical fillers added.
If you don't need to do any development work you can run with the Web-client only, so you should be be able to do it. Come to think of it, you could do some dev work in Citrix, since there's an ICA client for Linux. Just giving EnterpriseOne a cursory re-examination shows there's no prohibition against Netscape, which means Mozilla will almost certainly work. I'd test Konqueror, Firebird, Galleon, etc.

I doubt if Napoleon the Loud :whip: would be too pleased, though. However, I think thats more a matter of Napoleon's ignorance and fear of the new.
 

samcurry

The King
Staff member
well Napolean isnt really a concearn, since it took them a year to find my mandrake server last time. :) and i dont leave the laptop plugged into the network all the time i figure id have atleast 2 years.
I have the ICA for linux so i figured i could run it, but wasnt sure about the linux browsers..
Hmmm i may just take my personal lappy in and test. i have SUSE on it.
 

Dimurgeon

No artifical fillers added.
LOL! SCurry back under that table there Sammy, before I ask Greg to do me a favor and fly to Indiana with Spork in hand to take care of you. No, I don't work with him. He's an old gaming buddy of mine originally from the when I was playing MultiPlayer BattleTech, in all its 16 color, smooth-playing-on-a-33.6-modem glory.
 
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