Looks like MS put alot of pressure on, cause if one state passes it...
"THE STATE OF OREGON government had been hoping to cut costs. Like any government body it suffers from a continual drive to find funds. So it came up with a scheme that seemed to suit the tax payers' pockets. It introduced House Bill 2892 which proposed that all government departments had to consider using open source each time it purchased some software. According to The Register-Guard, that idea has been shouted down.
Someone must have opened up a spreadsheet and worked out just how much money proprietary software was costing the state. It wouldn't have taken long for the news to spread. The bill was proposed so that various departments were forced to look at open source software and not just stick with what they were familiar with. But Oregon has the third highest density of technology workers in the US and that means large numbers of tech firms. It seems some of them weren't too happy with the bill.
The only big loser in the switch would have been Microsoft. Smaller firms would be likely to gain as the vacuum left by the departing Vole would create demand for software and services, most likely bringing big benefits to local businesses. The local rag says that the bill was "passed over after heavy opposition" from the "software industry". We leave you to draw your own conclusions."
View: Article @ The INQ
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