Re: The Beginning Of The End For Micro$oft Reign Of Terror

From: John G (greentest@optushome.com.au)
Date: 06/14/02 

From: "John G" <greentest@optushome.com.au>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 20:39:55 +1000

Oh! how the wheel has turned.
In a time before a lot of you can remember, IBM was the villain, now you are
touting it as the saviour from Microsoft.

John G.
"Osama Bin KENOBi" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:2e7jgukr2urnhq5uk2vase7nhpigep600t@4ax.com...
> The world has lost faith in Micro$oft. Most people have now realized
> that the seemingly never-ending problems caused by this viral
> operating system are the direct result of Micro$oft's marketing
> strategy and shady business practices, and can be easily avoided. The
> very core design of windoze was based not on the best design for the
> user, but on the best design for Micro$oft's business.
>
> To put it simply, Micro$oft just cannot be trusted, Micro$oft products
> will never work properly because Micro$oft doesn't want them to...
>
> German gov deal offers Linux great leap forward in Europe
> By John Lettice
> The Register / R.A.G.U.N.S.
>
> Yesterday's announcement of a Linux-based cooperation agreement
> between IBM and Germany's ministry of the interior changes the rules
> of the game dramatically. Microsoft still has deals with the German
> government, and will undoubtedly still sell software to it and to
> Germany's states, but the territory covered by the agreement and the
> terms used by minister of the interior Otto Schily signal that Linux
> has already won the server war in principle, and that the German
> government intends it to do so in practice.
>
> The deal initially covers the sale of IBM systems including eServer
> hardware running SuSE Linux to federal, state and local government in
> Germany. This helps IBM and SuSE, obviously, but in long term they're
> unlikely to be the only ones, as Schily's goals included raising "the
> level of IT security by avoiding monocultures," and he is of the view
> that the agreement will help the federal, state and local governments
> by allowing them to acquire open source products "quickly, easily and
> without complication."
>
> The agreement also calls for IBM to and the German government to
> create "innovative and reusable IT solutions for the federal
> administration," while IBM will be setting up an open source portal
> and providing support services.
>
> Microsoft has been making optimistic noises about its existing
> contracts with the German government, along with rather sour ones
> about the German government allegedly ignoring its own studies which
> (equally allegedly) "showed" that Microsoft software was superior both
> technically and on price. The reality, however, is that Microsoft's
> dominant position in client software, and its challenger status in
> server software is pretty much the same in Germany as it is in the
> rest of the world. At this stage the question for government is
> whether it does as Microsoft says and standardises on Windows at the
> server end too, or whether it looks to see if there's another game in
> town.
>
> Germany seems not only to have decided to go with the latter but to
> make it its business to to help turn it into a convincing game. Oh,
> and by the way, the German studies we've seen tend to give points to
> Linux for servers while concluding it's not ready yet at the client
> end, so we suspect Microsoft of fuzzy survey interpretation.
>
> Overall, the combination of government resources and IBM's government
> and corporate solutions expertise could be deadly, threatening
> Microsoft with a virtually complete lockout at the lucrative back-end
> of German administration. This isn't something a cash-strapped and
> resource-starved operation like SuSE (or even Red Hat) could do on its
> own at this juncture, so the deal is potentially a massive leap for
> Linux into the government/commercial arena.
>
> It'll also give credibility to Linux elsewhere in Europe, where there
> is considerable chafing over the cost implications of Microsoft's
> Licensing 6.0, and over 'security issues' associated with Windows
> (Schily, tellingly, says September 11 was one of his considerations in
> striking the deal). It's a little close to the Licensing 6.0 deadline
> for people of to jump just on the basis of what IBM and the German
> government say they're going to do, but it's starting to look less
> like a leap into the dark.

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    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Re: The Beginning Of The End For Micro$oft Reign Of Terror
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