All, I respectfully submit that M$ will not permit this to happen. Remember, they have been found guilty and convicted of violating anti trust laws and will do so anytime they believe their interests are threatened. They have been shown that even with a conviction, the penalty is minimal. They will resort to a form of "dumping" and lower their price for a time or even eliminate the payment requirements all together just to keep those systems in there and running. Steve Ballmer said once something like "If somebody is going to pirate software, we would just as soon they pirate ours." They will do what ever it takes to see to it that doesn't happen. Sorry folks. Tim ________________________________ From: ChasM Marshall To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us Sent: Sat, July 10, 2010 6:06:20 PM Subject: RE: UK Government says, "Dump Microsoft" 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 >l > > 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. > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss ________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. Get busy.