11.10.11
Pogson: Has EDGI Been at Work? (Again)
Summary: Reasonable suspicion that Microsoft paid to remove Freedom software from Dutch schools
THIS WEB site has a unique archive of EDGI exhibits. These are antitrust items that Microsoft paid to hide — court exhibits which show quite clearly how Microsoft abuses its monopoly power to pretty much bribe its way into deals and detail prospective deals of the competition, notably Free/open source and GNU/Linux. We would like to draw attention to the following couple of links from this week:
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Netherlands Education Abjectly Submits to M$
In 1944/1945 my father risked his life to liberate The Netherlands from tyranny and now the Ministry of Education has submitted the school system to another tyranny, M$’s lock-in, without a fight. The Netherlands has been very friendly to FLOSS. Why this turnabout? Has EDGI been at work?
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Dutch schools throw out govt open-source policy for Silverlight
Dutch education authorities have decided to throw out their government’s open standards policy and instead lock in to Microsoft proprietary software for years to come, according to open-source advocates.
Marja Bijsterveldt, the Netherlands’ secretary of education, said that she was unwilling to force open standards on educational institutions, sparking an outcry from open-source advocates who say that Dutch students using free software or devices without Silverlight-support will find themselves locked out of schools’ online systems.
The open standards policy was approved by the Dutch Parliament in 2007, but has not been fully implemented. Now, free software advocates are starting a new battle to make the use of open standards mandatory for all publicly funded institutions.
Silverlight is a dead product, so this makes no sense. The death of Silverlight is in the geek news sites today. See “HTML5 Triumphant: Silverlight, Flash Discontinuing”. The above makes little or no sense at all. Was there another EDGI behind closed doors? We might not find out until the next subpoena. █
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mcinsand said,
November 10, 2011 at 12:14 pm
It’s like Mitt Romney is in charge of the Netherlands! (Sad that, over here, no-one remembers how he showed abject spinelenssness when he threw his support behind Peter Quinn and then wilted like lettuce in boiling water when the political/lobbying heat barely started to get warm.)
Seriously, though, when Apple and MS have no genuine innovation or performance advantages, how else can they compete. They have to use whatever means to keep FLOSS below critical mass, at least for as long as they can hold out.
Michael said,
November 10, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Your “unique archive” points to your own site… fine. But then all of the links point back to another of your own sites. Again, you are using your own claims as support for your own claims. Can some dig back far enough to maybe support some subset of your “evidence”? Maybe… but maybe not. Bottom line: you are not supporting your claims. Again.
Then your external links:
1) A school system selected some tools some guy did not like. So?
2) Another school system selected some tools some guy did not like. So?
I am not saying I agree (or disagree) with the decisions of the school districts, but product selection should be based on merit, not religion. Picking open source software by default makes no more sense than picking MS software or Apple software by default – school districts (and businesses) should use what will serve them best. And, yes, many will make choices you or I disagree with. So?
Unless you can show where these examples include MS getting unfair consideration this is a complete non-story. If, on the other hand, MS did somehow bribe their way in or otherwise break the law (or go against morality / ethics) to be the selected option, that is different. You *imply* that but never support it.
Support it and I am all for jumping on the band wagon to say MS is wrong in this case.
tinus61 said,
November 11, 2011 at 3:46 am
Microsoft did not only p0wn3d the educational system, it also p0wn3d public services and the public broadcaster (Dutch equivalent of the MSBBC) all their sites require Silverlie.
After the Desktop GNU/Linux pilot of Amsterdam seemed successfully Dutch Microsoft’s CEO Theo Rinsema complained that the Open Desktop was “unfair”.
I wrote a lot about the so called Open Desktop at Dutch public services. In stead of running Desktop GNU/Linux they migrated to Windows 7 and in stead of Open Standards it’s Microsoft Office.
I quit writing about it, because it is too embarrassing!
About 3 months ago a study proved that Free Software would save public services in the Netherlands at least 1 billion Euros A YEAR! Yet the Dutch Minister of National affairs Piet-Hein Donner kept the report secret.
Also the former Minister of Financial Affairs Wouter Bos was clearly bribed by Vole.
One thing is crystal clear Vole has been doing quite some “Politicians Shopping” in the Netherlands lately.