[CLUG] governmental use of ms software

[adam beecher]

Hi Peter,

> <http://www.cptech.org/at/ms/omb4jun02ms.html>
>
> Is there any mileage in trying this on our lords and masters?
>
If we could get someone like Ralph Nader on board, possibly, but is there
anyone like Nader in Ireland? We (the tech community, not just Linux users)
need to get at least one techie/advocate on-side, someone that can educate
the technophobes in Government.

FYI, I sent the following to Karlin Lillington today, after an article on
The Register reminded me about this. I'll send it to Matthew Magee if Karlin
doesn't follow up in a few days.

adam


> -----Original Message-----
> From: adam beecher [mailto:ad at m.beecher.net]
> Sent: 04 June 2002 12:51
> To: Karlin Lillington
> Subject: Government contract with Microsoft
>
>
> Karlin,
>
> I've been meaning to mention to this to someone, but it slipped by me: Do
> you know anything about this recent contract the Government signed with
> Microsoft? It's a multi-year contract - three years I think - but it
> doesn't seem to be listed on the eTenders website. We had a discussion
> about this on the CLUG (Cork Linux User Group) mailing list recently, and
> although I was trying to drum up support for making sure it doesn't
> happen again, some of the guys seemed to think that it might be worthy of
> an investigation. I think they may be right if it didn't go out to tender.
>
> I won't go into the advantages and disadvantages of moving to Open Source
> software, but I can provide some background and point you in the direction
> of a couple of case studies if necessary.
>
> Thanks,
> adam
>