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[Marketing] FLOSS called "unstoppable" by IBM exec |
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Mon, 20 Oct 2003 17:55:45 -0700 |
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IBM is switching 175 governments to Linux
Please note that this is an AP story!!!!!!
Per Louis's request, I have edited the article and have not included
the entire article, but there is a link below.
Massachusetts Locks Horns with Microsoft
By Justin Pope, AP Business Writer
October 19, 2003
BOSTON (AP)―With more than $32 billion in sales last year, Microsoft
Corp. doesn't usually worry
about losing one customer. But this one may be different.
In a memo sent last month, Massachusetts Administration and Finance
Secretary Eric Kriss instructed the state's chief technology officer
to adopt a policy of "open standards, open source" for all future
spending on information technology.
The directive likely wouldn't completely cut out Microsoft from the
state's $80 million technology budget.
But it may have been the clearest example yet of a state government
taking sides―against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft―in the most
important struggle in the software industry.
snip....
Governments are a huge market, accounting for about 10 percent of
global information technology spending, according to research firm
IDC. Federal, state and local governments in the United States spent
$34 billion last year on huge systems to track everything from tax
collection to fishing licenses.
"I think they're correct to be concerned," said Ted Schadler, principal
analyst at Forrester Research, adding that government switchovers
could doubly hurt Microsoft by persuading big corporate customers
that, if huge public bureaucracies can adopt platforms like Linux, so
can large companies.
Governments have also been among the most aggressive early adapters of
Linux. IBM, a major Linux backer, says it has installed or is
installing Linux for 175 public sector customers.
"The momentum is unstoppable at this point," said Scott Handy, vice
president of Linux strategy and market development at IBM. "The
leading indicator as far as a customer set has been government."
Many believe open source will prove cheaper to deploy and operate, and
that it may be more secure; because the codes are public, flaws may be
discovered more quickly. And some foreign governments seem eager not
to be dependent on an American company.
Federal agencies in France, China and Germany, as well as the city
government of Munich, have opted for Linux. Britain, Brazil and Russia
are also exploring it.
"You scratch any one of these initiatives and you can't escape that
it's Microsoft they're trying to displace," Schadler said.
snip...
"We do treat this issue very seriously here," said David Kaeffer,
Microsoft's director of technology policy.
Microsoft has fought open-source mandates with limited success.
Proposals similar to Massachusetts', including ones in Oregon and
Texas, have been shot down after complaints from Microsoft and other
technology companies whose products could be shut out. Microsoft also
aggressively lobbied the Defense Department to cut its use of open
source software, according to a Washington Post report last year.
The company has plenty of reason to worry.
The Microsoft-led industry group Initiative for Software Choice has
tracked 70 different open- source preference proposals in 24
countries. And despite Microsoft's lobbying, a Pentagon report
concluded that open source was often cheaper and more secure, and that
its use, if anything, should expand.
Gerry Wethington, Missouri's chief information officer and president of
the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said
many of his group's members are pushing hard to bring open standards
to their states.
Microsoft countered with an initiative in July that steeply discounts
software for government users. It also agreed to make its secret
source code available to some governments in order to assuage security
concerns.
Microsoft insists that it supports "open standards," which is often
associated with "open source" but can also be a broader term meaning
any way of making technology work together.
snip...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1357556,00.asp
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