I completely agree that it is critical that County
understand that this is the case.

My concern is if we grab them by the scruff of the
neck and shout, "debar Microsoft now or else!", that
we will have created enemies where we most need
friends.

I'm thinking that County is probably taking a hard
look at that clause this week, and they probably
have more expertise in law than we do. We can
confirm this at the meeting by asking, "what are
your thoughts on the debarrment clause?" If they
say, "oh, we haven't read it." we should turn red
and jump up on the table and shout. I'm betting
they say, "well, it is an issue - we think it
means <X>." I'll lay 5 to 1 odds that they will
have opinion X at the beginning of the meeting,
and they will have the same opinion X at the end
of the meeting - entirely regardless of what we
say. They're as good at county law as we are at
Linux - it's their specialty.

But, given that opinion X will, at the very least,
include, "we need to think about this", we have
an opportunity to show them, realistically, what
they can do to start to migrate.


On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Jim wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Lets not forget the issue that brought the sunshine.  According to the
> procurement procedures of Maricopa County, Microsoft can and should be
> debarred from competing for any county contracts because it has been
> convicted of federal antitrust violations.
>
> That is the point that needs to be made loudly and strongly.  No matter how
> many shills MS wants to bring, no matter how much FUD and misinformation they
> want to spread, they cannot weasel their way around the letter of the county
> procurement procedures.
>
> - --
> Jim
>
> Freedom is worth protecting
>
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> =3tRG
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