Why Nader's Microsoft plan is flawed
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Let me get this straight. Ralph Nader -- former presidential candidate (and close friend of Al Gore), consumer crusader and political activist -- believes the way to bring Bill Gates to his knees is for President Bush, in the guise of the Office of Management and Budget, to mandate that the government limit its purchases of Microsoft products. In other words, spread the dollars around to Apple, IBM, Corel, Linux firms and other manufacturers to encourage competition and get better pricing. Nader even goes so far as to suggest that the federal government buy the code for Microsoft Office outright, and release it into the public domain in order to save the public money and avoid the costly upgrades from Microsoft that are designed to overcome interoperability problems.
Nice try, Mr. Nader I am not convinced that putting Office code in the public domain would go a long way toward solving the government's dysfunctional IT or cost overrun problems (see FBI most wanted: new IT priorities). I'm pleased that you're keeping the heat on Microsoft. So far the Department of Justice and the U.S. District Court haven't been able to come up with the solution to reign in the company. But while your goals are worthy, the means are way off target.