Joe,

  I hate to be negative, but it's only a proposal.

  I don't see much traction to this U.K. proposal although, I am totally FOR it.
For example, the Brazilian government successfully banned "proprietary" software.
Down there, the MS product line has a much smaller installed base.
Their future public budget was the primary concern for the law.

  But in the U.K. the government has to deal with entrenched political lobby power.
The MS marketeers have already pushed pretty deep into their infrastructure.
I've read reports of whole school departments being refused purchase funds.  Why?
Because MS offered a substitute product.  They should have specified MS product.
Internal conflicts between agencies ensue.  It's weird that when a requesting
agency asks for non-MS goods, they are denied purchase power by the very
sources of budget inefficiency that that country is now fighting.

  This article shows only the tip of a huge $235 Billion deficit iceberg.
"Two of the 31 listed proposals"  are what was disclosed.
Spit in the ocean.

  How nice that these suggestions are from officials but,
the suggestion box has now expanded to the general public...
So now, do they fire the two guys who suggested Linux and open source software?

  Good luck to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Kudos to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
His position is confirmed pro-OpenSource.  Yay!  \o/

  (-:  Chas.M.  :-)

> Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 11:46:30 -0600
> Subject: UK Government says, "Dump Microsoft"
> From: joe@actionline.com
> To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> 
> 
> Today, the government of the United Kingdom now says:
> 
> "Dump Microsoft, Use Linux ..."
> 
> It's only a matter of time for more and more people wake up to common sense.
> 
> http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-09/dump-microsoft-use-linux-to-save-money-u-k-officials-suggest.html
> 
> A few key excerpts:
> 
> New U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron asked 600,000 government workers to
> make suggestions on saving money ... 56,000 ideas submitted ...
> 
> ... migrate the whole of government from Microsoft products to Linux and
> open-source software like Openoffice” ... suggested dropping Microsoft.
> 
> ... before the Conservatives won power [officials said they] favored the
> idea ... quote: “We need to follow the example of businesses all over the
> world and take advantage of open-source technology,”
> 
> Now, if only we could get a little of this common sense in Washington D.C.
> 
> 
> 
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