Wow wow wow wow WOW!

[Void Main]

Nice article and lots of good comments:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?stor ... 6080305991

[Calum]

well red traditionally does denote socialism and blue denotes conservative.

sorry, that was OT too.
on topic: yes, good article, most amusing in parts!

[Linux Frank]

Woohoo. You have no idea... hang on actually you do ... well then you have every idea how happy this makes me, working for a Mass. gov. funded project. Viva the OOo rollout. It may be a year or two away, but it is coming now.

[Void Main]

Looks like blue state reps are just as screwed as any other:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles ... age_shift/

They either A) just don't get it (stupid) or B) they are bought and paid for or probably C) both.

[Void Main]

So much for the blue state being good:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?stor ... 3094403372

What a bunch of Mass holes!

[worker201]

So they can't use ODF because it doesn't provide economical benefits to businesses such as Microsoft? That is proof right there that this country is in some serious trouble.

[Ice9]

This is the type of reaction that is motivated by money, and money only.
No sensible person would ever act like this or even dare to suggest something this ridiculous unless they have a powerful motivator!

This is the power of money at its best, and Micro$oft has got plenty of cash to throw at this kind of thing!
I don't know about you guys but this really scares me.
Each day I notice that we've been robbed of one more little piece of freedom, and every time it benefits the rich and the powerful be it government lobbies, record companies or software powerhouses.

I fear that all the efforts of the world might not make any difference as long as we're policed by a bunch of morons, and the world we're about to leave to our children .......

[ZiaTioN]

I fear that all the efforts of the world might not make any difference as long as we're policed by a bunch of morons

Keep your hope alive. The morons can pass as many laws as they want to but when it comes right down to it, the basics of economics is supply and demand. If the demand for ANY product decreases the cost of said product will decrease to try and adjust to the demand. If the demand becomes null or close to null the manufacturers of said product will reorganize to try and capture some of the market back thus actually doing market analasys and trying to figure out what the masses are into or go out of business.

They can never force someone to buy anything. They can make it hard for government agencies to choose what may make since, since gov. contracts means big dollars for those who are awarded them. However the gov. has always been comprised of dumb asses who make stupid decision so this should not be a suprise or a change. Let the gov use sub par equipment and software and let the private industry revolutionize the industry like they always have.

Even if they ever managed to outlaw open source software I would still use it and I know thousands, if not millions of other users feel the same way. There is no stopping intelectual progression. The biggest up hill battle open source platforms such as Linux faces is getting known. Some say it is harder to use than Windows which may be true depending on your intelligence level but I for one would never want my favorite distro to try and dumb it down so much that we loose the very benefits that make Linux, Linux.

Walking into a house without any doors on it may be less time consuming and overall just easier but would you want to keep anything of value in that house? I for one would rather put doors and locks on my house and fuss with the keys for a few seconds rather than be robbed every other day. That is just me though.

[Calum]

i'm glad you guys started talking about economics. i was worried you might all veer off and talk about politics for a second!