Linspire chief executive Michael Robertson yesterday urged the Dutch government to consider open source as an option in an ambitious upgrading of over 260,000 workstations and servers.
"It could save you over €150m" he estimated in an open letter to the Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende.
Privacy and open source advocates have been up in arms since Dutch IT magazine De Automatisering Gids leaked details about secret negotiations between Microsoft and the Dutch government. The secrecy was widely condemned in an earlier open letter.
Large government projects are required to be open to all, says Bits of Freedom, a digital civil rights movement based in Amsterdam.
In 2002 the parliament unanimously voted for a proposal dubbed 'motion Vendrik' that would let government institutions use open standards by 2006. Motion Vendrik resulted in the The Open Standards and Open Source Software (OSOSS) programme, which aimed to stimulate Dutch government organisations to adopt open standards in their ICT-applications
"The [recent] contract negotiations are squarely opposed to the motion Vendrik and undermine the positive results of the OSOSS programme," Bits of Freedom wrote.
Robertson claims that a switch to open source software could save the Dutch government €150m. His Linspire product has similar functionality to a Windows desktop but is entirely based on Linux. "My sources have revealed that Microsoft has submitted a formal proposal of €156m -- an estimate of €150m more than Linspire's proposal. I want to stress that even with the dramatic cost difference, you will receive a comparable product," Robertson writes.
Microsoft estimates it could service the five-year contract for about €120 per year, per machine. Robertson says that he could do it for €4.5 per machine, on the same conditions.
Linspire's proposal would include the operating system with updates, specific on-site customisation, a suite of business software and access to a special 1,900-title software library. Robertson stated that should his company be awarded the order, he would personally oversee implementation.
Since it has been in power, the Balkenende cabinet has taken highly unpopular cost-cutting measures in many fields, necessary to keep the budget deficit from reaching a mandatory European limit of 3 percent.
Talkback
http://www.linspire.com/lindows_michaelsminutes_archives.php?id=149
"Just this week, we launched a laptop series with the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, starting at just 375 euros. "
anyone seen this one ?
Dutch government might be liable for damages if they don't allow (or frustrate) other vendors to compete as described by EC regulations.
So perhaps several vendors should at least investigate what their (legal) options (and rights) are in this case. And perhaps for similiair cases in various EU countries as well.
I've been a Linspire user off and on ever since Lindows 1.0. It unfortunately never was mature or robust enough to meet my needs, but Five-O which Linspire just released is a step in the right direction for getting Linux on the desktop.
I am also an American who recently moved to The Netherlands, and I think they have a wonderful country, and are very progressives on many many fronts.
It would be really sad if that progression didn't carry through to their choice of software and computing needs.
While I'm not saying Michael Robertson's Linspire is the best Linux soulution out there, I will say that it is a very good start, not to mention it has the finacial backing of a very smart business man, who has proven that he has the ability to take controversial technology and make it standard and make a ton of money while doing it. Just look at MP3.com which is now owned by this sites parents company if I'm correct.
I personally don't see Linspire ultimately being my distro of choice, but it is a step in the right direction...and more than that...it's a choice...