Israel defects to Open Source - Microsoft not pleased

[Charles McColm]

Posted by Charles McColm, ***@student.cs.uwaterloo.ca

Summarized from Andrew Orlowski¹s article "MS scorns Israeli OpenOffice
defection" on The Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34154.html

Most of Israel¹s Ministry of Commerce has suspended all contracts with
software giant Microsoft. This follows a relatively unnoticed
declaration by Dror Strum (Israel¹s Antitrust Authority director
general) that Microsoft a monopoly.

Many Israeli organizations, including Israel¹s Defense Forces, are
making a gradual shift towards "Open Source Software" (OSS) such as Open
Office, a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Most of the
organizations are sticking with Microsoft Windows for now, but given the
monopoly declaration and a number of other Anti-Trust cases currently
pending in Israeli courts Microsoft may lose a significant amount of
money and market share in Israel.

For those who don¹t know what OSS is, it is software that you can get
the source code for. Many OSS programs are available for free on the
Internet, but some OSS programs you have to pay for before you get the
source code. The advantage of OSS is you don¹t have to wait for a
company like Microsoft to add features ­ you can alter the software to
suit your needs.

Microsoft isn¹t pleased with the shift towards OSS, particularly Open
Office which they suggested was an "unproven software package" whose
functionality was "at best close to Office 97." (I should note that I
recently saw an article which suggested that many organizations did not
upgrade to Office XP because they were satisfied with the functionality
of Office 97. It¹s also worth noting that Open Office is often included
with popular Linux operating system distributions such as Red Hat Linux,
which means roughly 20 million people have used or tested Open Office).

In typical Gatesean-fashion Microsoft whined and complained about Israel
being too tight-fisted, not a tactic that¹s particularly effective when
you want to convince someone to continue using your software.

[Ashley Rudy]

Post by Charles McColm
Summarized from Andrew Orlowski¹s article "MS scorns Israeli OpenOffice
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34154.html
Most of Israel¹s Ministry of Commerce has suspended all contracts with
software giant Microsoft. This follows a relatively unnoticed
declaration by Dror Strum (Israel¹s Antitrust Authority director
general) that Microsoft a monopoly.
Many Israeli organizations, including Israel¹s Defense Forces, are
making a gradual shift towards "Open Source Software" (OSS) such as Open
Office, a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Most of the
organizations are sticking with Microsoft Windows for now, but given the
monopoly declaration and a number of other Anti-Trust cases currently
pending in Israeli courts Microsoft may lose a significant amount of
money and market share in Israel.
For those who don¹t know what OSS is, it is software that you can get
the source code for. Many OSS programs are available for free on the
Internet, but some OSS programs you have to pay for before you get the
source code. The advantage of OSS is you don¹t have to wait for a
company like Microsoft to add features ­ you can alter the software to
suit your needs.
Microsoft isn¹t pleased with the shift towards OSS, particularly Open
Office which they suggested was an "unproven software package" whose
functionality was "at best close to Office 97." (I should note that I
recently saw an article which suggested that many organizations did not
upgrade to Office XP because they were satisfied with the functionality
of Office 97. It¹s also worth noting that Open Office is often included
with popular Linux operating system distributions such as Red Hat Linux,
which means roughly 20 million people have used or tested Open Office).
In typical Gatesean-fashion Microsoft whined and complained about Israel
being too tight-fisted, not a tactic that¹s particularly effective when
you want to convince someone to continue using your software.

MIcrosoft has to go with the flow. In order not to be out of the loop
they will have to start changing their strategies and the way they look
at the software market. Soon other countries will start to follow
israels lead and <icrosoft will have nothing

[mike mak]

Post by Charles McColm
Summarized from Andrew Orlowski¹s article "MS scorns Israeli OpenOffice
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34154.html
Most of Israel¹s Ministry of Commerce has suspended all contracts with
software giant Microsoft. This follows a relatively unnoticed
declaration by Dror Strum (Israel¹s Antitrust Authority director
general) that Microsoft a monopoly.
Many Israeli organizations, including Israel¹s Defense Forces, are
making a gradual shift towards "Open Source Software" (OSS) such as Open
Office, a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Most of the
organizations are sticking with Microsoft Windows for now, but given the
monopoly declaration and a number of other Anti-Trust cases currently
pending in Israeli courts Microsoft may lose a significant amount of
money and market share in Israel.
For those who don¹t know what OSS is, it is software that you can get
the source code for. Many OSS programs are available for free on the
Internet, but some OSS programs you have to pay for before you get the
source code. The advantage of OSS is you don¹t have to wait for a
company like Microsoft to add features ­ you can alter the software to
suit your needs.
Microsoft isn¹t pleased with the shift towards OSS, particularly Open
Office which they suggested was an "unproven software package" whose
functionality was "at best close to Office 97." (I should note that I
recently saw an article which suggested that many organizations did not
upgrade to Office XP because they were satisfied with the functionality
of Office 97. It¹s also worth noting that Open Office is often included
with popular Linux operating system distributions such as Red Hat Linux,
which means roughly 20 million people have used or tested Open Office).
In typical Gatesean-fashion Microsoft whined and complained about Israel
being too tight-fisted, not a tactic that¹s particularly effective when
you want to convince someone to continue using your software.

Although most of the organizations are sticking with MS Windows for
now, I think that it won't be too far down the road before they take
Israeli organization's lead and switch over to OSS. It is free, after
all. Also, the fact that you can alter the software to suit your needs
will win many votes for OSS. I don't think MS's argument that OSS is an
"unproven software package whose functionality is at best close to
Office 97" is a good one and will not win many organizations over. I,
like many of the organizatons have not upgraded to XP because I find 97
quite useful and sufficient. Indeed, I agree that MS will lose large
sums of maney and perhaps this will mark the beginning of the downfall
of the MS empire.