06.09.10
Austria Repeats the Internet Explorer Mistake
Summary: More Microsoft lock-in for Austria and to make matters worse, the government supports this
IT WAS only some months ago that Austrians complained about Microsoft lock-in. Who can blame them?
Vienna’s migration to GNU/Linux is said to have been ruined by inability to run programs/Web sites that require Internet Explorer (non-standard parts of it, which could be run under Wine and the likes of it anyway). Now we learn that this Internet Explorer problem is made even worse with the government’s endorsement. What are they thinking? [via Glyn Moody]
Microsoft and the Government of Austria collaborated on the Project “Digital Austria Explorer.” Microsoft developed a menu bar for the iExplorer (see below for an example).
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Is it a problem that this service is only available via an exclusive platform? The Government of Austria argues: “We have no problems when somebody approaches us with a good idea. Next time we will work together with someone else. If other browsers also want to offer this service, we would not say no.” Without any doubt, this is a good service and a great example of what Nick Vitalari talks about when he discusses the role of public-private ecosystems. However I believe that, in general, the goal of the government should be to use open platforms, even if it means investing taxpayer’s money.
They never learn, do they? Internet Explorer is what got the country stuck with non-Free software and probably caused massive amounts of monetary losses due to insecurity. Why is this government actively making the problem and the lock-in even worse? Another famous Austrian helps Microsoft increase lock-in further west in the United States of America. █
