Microsoft Denies Chile Free Software

[simplezz]

Fresh on the heels of the entire Munich and Linux debacle, another story involving Microsoft and free software has popped up across the world, in Chile. A prolific magazine from the South American country says that the powerful Microsoft lobby managed to turn around a law that would allow the authorities to use free software.
 

An independent member of the Chilean Parliament, Vlado Mirosevic, pushed a bill that would allow the state to consider free software when the authorities needed to purchase or renew licenses. The state of Chile pays $2.7 billion (?2 billion) on licenses from various companies, including Microsoft.

According to ubuntizando.com, Microsoft representatives met with Vlado Mirosevic shortly after he announced his intentions, but the bill passed the vote, with 64 votes in favor, 12 abstentions, and one vote against it. That one vote was cast by Daniel Farcas, a member of a Chilean party.

A while later, the same member of the Parliament, Daniel Farcas, proposed another bill that actually nullified the effects of the previous one that had just been adopted. To make things even more interesting, some of the people who voted in favor of the first law also voted in favor of the second one.

The new bill is even more egregious, because it aggressively pushes for the adoption of proprietary software. Companies that choose to use proprietary software will receive certain tax breaks, which makes it very hard for free software to get adopted.

Microsoft has been in the news in the last few days because the German city of Munich that adopted Linux and dropped Windows system from its administration was considering, supposedly, returning to proprietary software.

This new situation in Chile give us a sample of the kind of pull a company like Microsoft has and it shows us just how fragile laws really are. This is not the first time a company tries to bend the laws in a country to maximize the profits, but the advent of free software and the clear financial advantages that it offers are really making a dent.

Five years ago, few people or governments would have considered adopting free software, but the quality of that software has risen dramatically and it has become a real competition for the likes of Microsoft.

 

 

Makes one wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes when it comes to the corruption of software procurement policies. It's particularly poignant because of the alleged affiliation the newly-elected major of Munich has with Microsoft and its decision to move its German headquarters to Munich.

 

It's disappointing to see Microsoft's unwillingness to let the market decide which is the better product, and instead preferring to corrupt the whole process as it did with the ISO approval of OOXML.

 
Source

[Noir Angel]

That's just what corporations do... Buy politicians for favourable treatment. Microsoft aren't the first to do it, and they won't be the last.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Just ask the heavy set guy with the ugly beard what he thinks.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Some people don't realize that paid software offers support, provides better stability, is easier to use, decreases work load, and doesn't require as much training.

[simplezz]

That's just what corporations do... Buy politicians for favourable treatment. Microsoft aren't the first to do it, and they won't be the last.

That doesn't make it right though. Especially when it wastes money which could have otherwise been spent on essential services and promoting economic equality.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

That doesn't make it right though. Especially when it wastes money which could have otherwise been spent on essential services and promoting economic equality.

No. It actually saves tons of money. Believe it or not, the time it takes to fight with free software limitations, bugs and problems as well as the learning curve and ongoing maintenance cost (especially if the developers drop dead) is no where near free or rational to adopt.

[simplezz]

Some people don't realize that paid software offers support, provides better stability, is easier to use, decreases work load, and doesn't require as much training.

Why doesn't Microsoft make that case in its proposals then instead of paying off lawmakers to give it advantages over free software?

 

Clearly Microsoft fears competing on an even playing field, why else would they behave in this way. Microsoft hasn't changed its behaviour, and it never will from what I can see.

No. It actually saves tons of money. Believe it or not, the time it takes to fight with free software limitations, bugs and problems as well as the learning curve and ongoing maintenance cost (especially if the developers drop dead) is no where near free or rational to adopt.

Not according to the French police or Munich. They have saved millions by eschewing Microsoft and proprietary software.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Why doesn't Microsoft make that case in its proposals then instead of paying off lawmakers to give it advantages over free software?

 

Clearly Microsoft fears competing on an even playing field, why else would they behave in this way. Microsoft hasn't changed its behaviour, and it never will from what I can see.

Not according to the French police or Munich. They have saved millions by eschewing Microsoft and proprietary software.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Munich-Considers-Dumping-Linux-Because-Users-Miss-Windows-Apps-455424.shtml

productivity was dramatically affected after moving from Windows to Linux and professional personnel had to be hired in order to take care of computers running the open-source operating system.

[Lord Method Man]

Saved them a lot of headache and ultimately time and money by getting them to stay away from GNU/Linux junk. (Y)

[ichi]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Munich-Considers-Dumping-Linux-Because-Users-Miss-Windows-Apps-455424.shtml

productivity was dramatically affected after moving from Windows to Linux and professional personnel had to be hired in order to take care of computers running the open-source operating system.

 

They should have hired the same guys that did the migration for the French Gendarmerie.

 

Not only did they migrate 65K desktops in the same take it took Munich to migrate 14K, but they took a more sane approach: first migrate the apps and let users get used to the new applications in their old familiar environment, and then later on migrate the OS.

 

Also their OS is as of now more current than that of Munich.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

simplezz bashing Microsoft? How refreshingly unusual.... /s

[exotoxic]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Munich-Considers-Dumping-Linux-Because-Users-Miss-Windows-Apps-455424.shtml

productivity was dramatically affected after moving from Windows to Linux and professional personnel had to be hired in order to take care of computers running the open-source operating system.

 

Windows requires administrators too.

[simplezz]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Munich-Considers-Dumping-Linux-Because-Users-Miss-Windows-Apps-455424.shtml

productivity was dramatically affected after moving from Windows to Linux and professional personnel had to be hired in order to take care of computers running the open-source operating system.

That article was proven to be fallacious. The person who was quoted as saying that turned out to be a single individual, specifically the newly elected major, who had been personally involved in Microsoft's decision to shift its headquarters to Munich. The Munich council (the body that actually makes the decisions) responded by reiterating its support for the shift away from the ubiquitous proprietary solution (aka Microsoft Windows/Office) to GNU/Linux.

 

It has parallels to what Microsoft is trying to do in Chile. Namely, bribing politicians in order to impose its expensive and vendor lock-in products onto governments.

[COKid]

OP, you obviously don't like Microsoft. Companies lobby for things all the time. Get over it.

[simplezz]

OP, you obviously don't like Microsoft. Companies lobby for things all the time. Get over it.

I don't like corruption in general. And I don't think we should except it as normality. For if we do, we're one step closer to the plutocratic state.

[Ironman273]

If you follow the link back to the source you'll see that when the bill was suggested Microsoft had a representative fly down to explain the benefits of staying with Microsoft vs. free.  It probably constituted a lot of the information that Alexander brought up that the politicians may have never considered (if something sounds too good to be true.. et al).  From the source: "Alex Pess?, gerente de asuntos legales y corporativos de Microsoft, viaj? hasta el Congreso para reunirse con ?l, a fin de exponer estudios y argumentos que rebat?an el proyecto que hab?a presentado." and for those that don't speak Spanish: "Alex Pess?, manager of legal and corporate affairs at Microsoft, went to Congress to join him, to expose studies and rebutted arguments that the project presented."

 

The thing is that in real big-boy work land, if you're about to lose an account, you go visit them to find out why and see what can make them stay with you.  In this case it appears that Microsoft made a good argument as to why they should've stayed with Microsoft vs. "free" software.

 

Nowhere in the article does it mention payment of any type and the only largely negative comments come from the politician that introduced the "free software" bill that got overturned.  

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Windows requires administrators too.

Which is not as a difficult. I could even do it as, after all, I used Windows for 15 years.

 

They should have hired the same guys that did the migration for the French Gendarmerie.

 

Not only did they migrate 65K desktops in the same take it took Munich to migrate 14K, but they took a more sane approach: first migrate the apps and let users get used to the new applications in their old familiar environment, and then later on migrate the OS.

 

Also their OS is as of now more current than that of Munich.

So they waste their time migrating functional apps and every time they hire someone they need to train them to use the OS. Right that is sane and productive.

 

Also, how could you migrate apps before migrating the OS? Do they use web applications for everything?

[Eric Veteran]

The French police migration was just completed in June. It's too early to see if it's going to work out or not.

[LaP]

It's a problem that goes way further than software.

 

Political party funding is a big problem all around the world including USa and Canada. Big corporations and lobby groups literally buy laws by giving lot of money to political parties.

 

It's been this way for a while and it wont change cause the lobby groups will continue pay money for it to not change and there will always be politicians ready to accept this money to win an election.

[123456789A]

in other news, Microsoft also met with al Qaida and negotiated for windows and office to be the official software of the terrists

 

See how ISIS is using Office 365 and Microsoft Power BI to track how many people they have beheaded.

[ichi]

Also, how could you migrate apps before migrating the OS? Do they use web applications for everything?

 

They migrated what could be migrated, obvioiusly. Specifically they deployed openoffice on WindowsXP far before they migrated the OS.

They also migrated to Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows, which would remain the same when they migrated to Linux, making the transition easier to digest for users.

 

 

The French police migration was just completed in June. It's too early to see if it's going to work out or not.

 

It is, indeed.

 

Then again they had almost twice as many desktops as Munich migrated back in December 2011, so it's not like they'd started to work with the new environment just now.

By 2005 they had already replaced the 90k MS Office suites with openoffice, so the major hurdle in Munich (document compatibility) should be pretty much tried and tested by now. 

[LaP]

That's just what corporations do... Buy politicians for favourable treatment. Microsoft aren't the first to do it, and they won't be the last.

 

They all do it. No exception.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

They migrated what could be migrated, obvioiusly. Specifically they deployed openoffice on WindowsXP far before they migrated the OS.

They also migrated to Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows, which would remain the same when they migrated to Linux, making the transition easier to digest for users.

I do not perceive this group being representative, intelligent, or reliant on technology for that matter.

From the sound of it, they should have just gone with Google Docs.

 

I feel the overall trend is to use more tablets (non open source kind) for business and educational purposes and be less reliant on Windows OS...

[dvb2000]

Fresh on the heels of the entire Munich and Linux debacle, another story involving Microsoft and free software has popped up across the world, in Chile. A prolific magazine from the South American country says that the powerful Microsoft lobby managed to turn around a law that would allow the authorities to use free software.

 

 

As Munich found out, and has been well known for a long time, FREE software costs more to install and maintain than does BUYING Windows/Office.

 

Why can't people look at the TOTAL cost of ownership, rahter than the headline cost. A little bit of due dilligence up front would save them a fortune in the long term. Don't know how these "open software" advocates get away with their lies.

[ichi]

I do not perceive this group being representative, intelligent, or reliant on technology for that matter.

From the sound of it, they should have just gone with Google Docs.

I feel the overall trend is to use more tablets (non open source kind) for business and educational purposes and be less reliant on Windows OS...

I very much doubt a gendarmerie would be allowed to store confidential data in a cloud managed by a foreign third party.