[ale] Letter to my congressman

[Andrew Newton]

I was actually considering writing my congressman and asking them to 
investigate the governments contracts with Microsoft.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/35063.html

If a small municipal council in the UK can get deep price cuts and 
concessions for suggesting that they will switch to OSS, our federal 
govenment ought to be able to save a ton of money.  And just how much 
overcharging has MS been doing to our government?

-andy

Charles Shapiro wrote:
> I intend to print  this out, put it into an envelope, and mail it to my
> congressman this weekend.
> 
> **
> 
> You may have received a letter from Daryl Mcbride, president of 
> the Santa Cruz Organization (SCO), calling Linux a danger to American
> security and a threat to the American economy.
> 
> I am an American citizen and a professional computer programmer who
> works full-time with Linux and Open Source software. Daryl Mcbride's
> litigation and lobbying efforts pose a direct threat to my livelihood
> and to that of hundreds of thousands of other Americans.  They are also
> deeply insulting to those involved in Open Source.
> 
> His allegations that Linux and Open Source software are threats to
> America are demonstrably false. To take just one example, 
> he claims that open source software is a 'threat to the US information
> technology industry'. Almost all the computer programmers in the United
> States write software for companies which do not directly sell it; I am
> no exception to this rule.  For these programmers,  Linux and Open
> Source software are essential tools and substantial
> boosts to their productivity.  To deprive them of these tools, or even
> to interfere with their use, injures the vast
> majority of the voters in the IT industry while unjustly favoring a tiny
> minority who don't even reside in your state. It also injures those who 
> use their programs, a group which includes nearly everyone who works
> with a computer.
> 
> If you think of legislation in this matter, perhaps the words of some
> 17th-century French merchants should be your guide. When asked by a
> minister of Finance what he could do for them they replied: Laissez-nous
> faire (Let Us Be).
> 
> -- CHS
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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