[DMCA-Activists] MS Rivals to Lobby for GNU/Linux in Government

[Seth Johnson]

> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2001436280_linuxgroup08.html


Microsoft rivals plan pro-Linux lobbying 

By Bloomberg News
Friday, August 08, 2003


The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a trade group
representing Microsoft rivals, including Sun Microsystems and Oracle, plans
to form a lobby group to urge governments to use the Linux operating system. 

The association has spent the past few months developing the group, to be
called the Open Source and Industry Alliance, said spokesman Gregory
Minchak. The group would try to get U.S. federal and state governments and
other nations to consider using Linux and other so-called open-source
software. 

Open-source programs can be copied for free from the Internet, and modified
versions are sold by companies such as Red Hat, IBM and Sun. Linux for
running server computers is growing faster than Microsoft's rival Windows,
analysts say. Microsoft has lost some government orders to Linux. 

"We want consideration for Linux; we want a nice, level playing field,"
Minchak said. "The primary focus is not to go after Microsoft at all." He
declined to disclose members of the proposed lobbying group, which hasn't
been formed officially. 

Microsoft backs its own lobby, the Initiative for Software Choice, along
with Intel. 

That group was formed last year to oppose proposals under consideration in
more than 24 countries to require governments to use or consider using
open-source programs. 


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