[no subject]

<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/35063.html";>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/35063.html</a>

If a small municipal council in the UK can get deep price cuts and 
concessions for suggesting that they will switch to OSS, our federal 
govenment ought to be able to save a ton of money.  And just how much 
overcharging has MS been doing to our government?

-andy

Charles Shapiro wrote:
&gt; I intend to print  this out, put it into an envelope, and mail it to my
&gt; congressman this weekend.
&gt; 
&gt; **
&gt; 
&gt; You may have received a letter from Daryl Mcbride, president of 
&gt; the Santa Cruz Organization (SCO), calling Linux a danger to American
&gt; security and a threat to the American economy.
&gt; 
&gt; I am an American citizen and a professional computer programmer who
&gt; works full-time with Linux and Open Source software. Daryl Mcbride's
&gt; litigation and lobbying efforts pose a direct threat to my livelihood
&gt; and to that of hundreds of thousands of other Americans.  They are also
&gt; deeply insulting to those involved in Open Source.
&gt; 
&gt; His allegations that Linux and Open Source software are threats to
&gt; America are demonstrably false. To take just one example, 
&gt; he claims that open source software is a 'threat to the US information
&gt; technology industry'. Almost all the computer programmers in the United
&gt; States write software for companies which do not directly sell it; I am
&gt; no exception to this rule.  For these programmers,  Linux and Open
&gt; Source software are essential tools and substantial
&gt; boosts to their productivity.  To deprive them of these tools, or even
&gt; to interfere with their use, injures the vast
&gt; majority of the voters in the IT industry while unjustly favoring a tiny
&gt; minority who don't even reside in your state. It also injures those who 
&gt; use their programs, a group which includes nearly everyone who works
&gt; with a computer.
&gt; 
&gt; If you think of legislation in this matter, perhaps the words of some
&gt; 17th-century French merchants should be your guide. When asked by a
&gt; minister of Finance what he could do for them they replied: Laissez-nous
&gt; faire (Let Us Be).
&gt; 
&gt; -- CHS
&gt; 
&gt; 
&gt; 
&gt; 
&gt; 
&gt; 
&gt; _______________________________________________
&gt; Ale mailing list
&gt; Ale at ale.org
&gt; <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale";>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a>



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