Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

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• Veterans Dept checks open-source options (Australian Financial Review, 2004.11.29)
  The Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs is considering installing open-source software on its desktop computers as it continues a wide-ranging technology revamp that has taken in almost all of its information systems. If it goes ahead with the proposal, the move would again put Veterans Affairs at the forefront of computer and communications technology adoption, continuing several years of intense change at the agency. It would also cement the department's position of one of the country's most advanced users of open source software, including the Linux operating system.
  

• Government says Finnish with IE 6 (ZDNet, 2004.11.29)
  A government agency in Finland is urging the country's citizens to avoid use of Internet Explorer until Microsoft has patched the Bofra vulnerability. ... Microsoft has yet to announce when it will release a patch for the vulnerability, which was published at the beginning of November.
  

• UK Council Dumps Microsoft for Open Source (Linux Insider, 2004.11.17)
  The local authority estimates that the move will save it some 1.4 million (US$2.6 million) over the next five years. ... According to the council, as well as saving money, the project aims to ensure a more consistent use of software systems across its departments and services where a mixture of products are currently used.
  

• Norway reports additional benefits from move to Linux (DesktopLinux.com, 2004.11.14)
  In the midst of a migration to Linux, the city of Bergen, Norway has reportedly expanded its estimates of the cost savings and other benefits it expects to achieve in switching from Microsoft Windows technologies. In a report at ZDNet published last week, Bergen CTO Ole-Bjorn Tuftedal says he expects to save 30 percent on hardware costs alone thanks to the efficiency of Linux -- this, in addition to cost savings associated with licensing fees and other economic benefits he had expected prior to testing open source for city-wide deployment.
  

• Linux in Government: Stanislaus County Does Linux with a Best Practices Slant (Linux Journal, 2004.11.05)
  A couple of years ago, meeting government officials interested in Linux surprised me. Recently, the incidence of inquires has become somewhat commonplace, especially with initiatives being introduced in states such as Massachusetts, Virginia, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Utah. People in government work want to know how they can join the march to open-source. ... As Robinson and I discussed Stanislaus County's other accomplishments, such as the server consolidation to Linux and the migration of major law enforcement applications, he said his next initiatives involved finding a Linux desktop and moving the eGovernment Web sites to Apache on Linux.
  

• Centrelink continues its crawl towards desktop Linux (ZDNet Australia, 2004.10.28)
  Centrelink, the Australian government agency responsible for distributing social security payments [has made] another step on the organisation's path that seems to lead to the ubiquitous deployment of Linux. ... 'We can scale all the way up to mainframe class systems and provide a universal operating system that is almost divorced from the hardware. That gives customers the ability to mix and match their hardware rather than being tied into a particular box on a particular operating system,' [manager for Novell's government accounts said].
  

• UK report says Linux is 'viable' (BBC News, 2004.10.28)
  The software could 'generate significant savings,' according to the [UK] Office of Government Commerce. ... The pilot schemes found that using Linux can extend the life of equipment and limit the number of servers need to run programs.
  

• Singapore government switches to OpenOffice.org (ZDNet UK, 2004.10.21)
  The Ministry of Defence in Singapore has decided to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org, a move which could involve 20,000 PCs, according to reports.
  

• Citizen Microsoft (Seattle Weekly, 2004.09.29)
  While Microsoft promotes the positive impact of success, all this growth has placed a heavy burden on our schools, roads, and overall livability. ... Recently, Forbes ranked Seattle as the most overpriced city in the country. Our school class sizes are the fourth largest in the nation. Washington's percentage of residents enrolled in college ranks 46th out of 50 states. Seattle teacher salaries rank 97th out of 100 major cities. Our traffic is the 17th worst in the country. And let's not forget more than 167,000 Washington children without health care and the growing ranks of homeless citizens staking out highway off-ramps in search of handouts. ... Seven years ago, Microsoft opened a small office in Reno, Nev., to collect the money it got from PC manufacturers that installed Windows and Office on the computers they sold. In the years since, Microsoft has sheltered more than $60 billion in royalty revenue in Nevada, a state with no corporate income tax, costing Washington an estimated $327 million in unrealized tax revenue.
  

• Virus puts brakes on licensing for the week (The Denver Post, 2004.09.22)
  State driver's licenses and identification cards won't be available for the remainder of the week because of a virus that has crippled the computer system since Friday. As many as 20,000 Coloradans may be inconvenienced by the computer down time.
  

• License issuance still idled (The Denver Post, 2004.09.21)
  State driver's licenses and identification cards won't be issued again today, inconveniencing thousands of Coloradans for a second straight day. An unidentified computer virus forced the Colorado Department of Revenue to close the system at 2:30 p.m. Friday, and it hasn't been up since...
  

• UN backs drive for free software (BBC News, 2004.08.29)
  The UN's International Open Source Network (IOSN) helped promote the first annual Software Freedom Day on 28 August, giving out CDs and booklets about the technology. ... In many developing countries, widespread access is difficult due to the high costs involved in setting up computer systems, buying licences and software support. IOSN tries to encourage countries to adopt affordable software so that the digital divide can be overcome.
  

• Linux saves Singapore's national library 30% over Windows 2003 (DesktopLinux.com, 2004.08.25)
  The National Library Board of Singapore has migrated to Linux as part of a move to counter end-of-life support issues with Windows NT and save an estimated 30 percent over a move to Windows 2003...
  

• UN organizes open-source software day across Asia (InfoWorld, 2004.08.25)
  The United Nations, through its International Open Source Network (IOSN) will organize the first annual Software Freedom Day on Saturday in an effort to educate Asian users about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and encourage its wider use in the region. ... 'FOSS ... represents an opportunity for these countries to adopt affordable software and solutions toward bridging the digital divide.'
  

• Opt for open source codes for better software security: Kalam (The Hindu, 2004.07.01)
  [India's president] advised defence scientists to shun proprietary systems and opt for open source codes to enhance software security in defence networks.
  

• U.S., citing security concerns, steers consumers away from IE (EE Times, 2004.07.01)
  The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team touched off a storm this week when it recommended for security reasons using browsers other than Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. ... The particular virus initiated this week ... allows keystroke analysis of user information. The target is believed to be credit card numbers. CERT estimated that as many as tens of thousands of Web sites may [have been infected with the malicious code, via a vulnerability in Microsoft's 'Internet Information Services' webserver software].
  

• Mississippi Launches Linux-Based Safety System (eWeek, 2004.06.30)
  The state of Mississippi has launched a Linux-based, mobile public safety system that links police, fire and emergency services to a single DB2 database.
  

• Munich Linux decision official (DesktopLinux.com, 2004.06.14)
  Linux has officially won 14,000 municipal desktops in Munich, Germany, after a year-long decision process that saw Microsoft reduce its pricing and merited a visit from Microsoft CEO Steve Baller. The 82-member city council formally votes tomorrow on a proposal to dump Windows NT for Linux.
  

• Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository (Slashdot.org, 2004.03.19)
  Massachusetts [has unveiled] a new software repository designed to let government agencies make more efficient use of open-source software. The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative, a newly formed group of seven states and four municipalities that will contribute and download open-source software and proprietary software designed by government agencies for their use.
  

• [Australian] Tax [Office] to open up software policy (Australian IT, 2004.02.24)
  The Australian Tax Office will adopt an open-source software policy for the first time, opening its Microsoft-dominated standard operating environment (SOE) to products such as Linux.
  

• Microsoft in human rights row (Guardian Unlimited, 2004.02.01)
  An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticised for helping to fuel 'a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offences.'
  

• Open Source in Government: Newport News, Va. (O'Reilly LinuxDevCenter, 2004.01.15)
  What if you ran a city government and had to upgrade your infrastructure, productivity applications, comply with new homeland security standards, and do it in the midst of a budget crunch[?] ... In this interview, Andy provides us with insights to what problems local governments face and how they can deploy open source components in the enterprise.
  

• [Australian Capital Territory] set to adopt open source bill (The Age, 2003.12.10)
  The Australian Capital Territory is set to become the first jurisdiction in the country to adopt a bill which says that public bodies should, as far as practicable, consider the use of open source software when procuring computer software. ... 'Since June this year, the ACT government has paid almost $15 million to Microsoft for software licence fees. Open source software was available that could have done the job more cheaply and provided local jobs...'
  

• [Britain's National Health Service] may ditch Microsoft on costs (The Observer, 2003.12.07)
  'Our evaluation of the Java Desktop System holds the promise of allowing a greater share of NHS funding to flow directly towards improved levels of patient service...' [L]icense cost savings would come to tens of millions of pounds directly.
  

• Faster, Better, Cheaper: Open-Source Practices May Help Improve Software Engineering (National Science Foundation, 2003.12.03)
  [Formal studies are] finding that, in many ways, open-source development can be faster, better and cheaper than the 'textbook' software engineering often used in corporate settings. ... [Open Source development] represents a new approach based on community building and other socio-technical mechanisms that might benefit traditional software engineering. ... The researchers also report that open-source development is better because of, among other features, its informality, which enables continuous system design and more agile development processes. And open-source is cheaper because the development tools are often open-source themselves...
  

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