[ALUG] In response to Microsoft ...

[(Ted Harding)]

Hi Folks (and apologies to anyone who receives this
via more than one route),

I have just enjoyed reading a letter, described as
being sent from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva
Nuñez to Microsoft Peru, in response tgo Microsoft's
objections to a Peruvian Govt Bill mandating open-source
software for all public bureaux.

It is at:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/19/
ms_in_peruvian_opensource_nightmare

(all one line; also at: http://tinyurl.com/3abgv )

In view of assorted difficulties with proprietary software
recently experienced by our own august Lords and Masters,[1]
perhaps it may be enjoyable reading for them too.

Enjoy.
Best wishes to all,
Ted.

[1] For example, the recent HMRC fiasco in which sensitive
personal data of about 27,000,000 people were "lost in the
post" owed much of its impact to the fact that HMRC staff
were unable to extract only the data they needed from their
database, unless they paid thousands (about £5,000 I think)
to EDS so that EDS could provide them with a different
data-selection template to what they had already. So they
decided to use what they already had, which pulled out far
more data than they should have pulled out.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 27-Dec-07                                       Time: 18:59:19
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