Taiwanese Parliament votes Against Microsoft

linumax writes "Taiwan's parliament has voted to end its dependence on Microsoft software, demanding that the government reduce purchases from the software giant by 25 percent this year. The resolution, passed on Friday, is an attempt by the island's law-making body to end the near monopoly Microsoft has with local government offices, a legislative aide said. Local newspaper Commercial Times said however that the resolution may not be binding because it runs against fair trade regulations in Taiwan. Officials at Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission declined to comment."

In related news

Microsoft offers China software for their missile guiding systems and naval fleet.

Chinese Missile Launch Sequence

After Microsoft fits them with software, the standard procedure includes:

- Boot up missile command system.
- First thing you do is install latest security patches, or else some kid in San Jose, California is going to take control of your missile.
- Log in to Hotmail.com to get the target coordinates from your superior officer. You will find it buried somewhere in the middle of 80 or so M3NSGR0WTH spams.
- After your clear the pop-up messages blocking the launch widget, launch the missile.
- Restart whole prodecure after missile crashes in the blue ocean of death well short of its target.

Re: Chinese Missile Launch Sequence

> - First thing you do is install latest security patches, or else some kid in San Jose, California is going to take control of your missile.

Probably will anyway, before you can download and install the patches.

> - Restart whole prodecure after missile crashes in the blue ocean of death well short of its target.

And blame the rocket driver.

Re:In related news

Microsoft offers China software for their missile guiding systems and naval fleet.

Wow, lucky break for Taiwan. They might just stand a chance now if China choses to use force.

Timing?

The refered article says: "Local newspaper Commercial Times said however that the resolution may not be binding because it runs against fair trade regulations in Taiwan. Officials at Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission declined to comment." Why now then, and not 10 years ago? What's the drip of water that flooded the bucket? (Dutch saying translated to bad english).

Expect a flying visit from Ballmer

If past form is anything to go by Ballmer or another senior executive will be booking their flights to head down and do a deal. Expect a large discount to be forthcoming that would allow the government to continue with its purchasing and still meet the 25 per cent target. It's happened before but the question is how long Microsoft can continue along that route. Discounting is all very well but once more governments get in on the game it's going to start costing. Why is it one supposes that Microsoft seems to move faster when a government threatens to stop sales than when they threaten it with an enquiry? This tells you a lot about the effectiveness of competition regulations in a WTO world.

Re: Expect a flying visit from Ballmer

Hmmm. Ballmer... monkey... flying...

Taiwan might give up Microsoft, and monkies might come flying out of Bill Gates' butt?

Re:Expect a flying visit from Ballmer

It's happened before but the question is how long Microsoft can continue along that route. Discounting is all very well but once more governments get in on the game it's going to start costing.

Costing what!? It's not like they didn't cover the cost of producing Windows hundreds of times over by now. If you mean "lower profits" then yeah, but to Microsoft it's probably worth it. Lower profits is better than nothing.

No, I'd be more worried about other governments starting to get pissed. It's not nice to pay premium price for Windows and see that others get it for much less.

The way Microsoft affords to juggle with the pricing on their products is unique to both software and selling in general. They practically have a special price for any market, as long as it sells for something, anything. Kinda reminds me of certain illegal substances...

OSS is gaining momentum

Way to go Taiwan! I expect many more Countries to move their Government IT infrastructures over to OSS in the year ahead.

I'm sure I am not the only one snickering at the irony at the comment about potential Fair Trade violation -- against MS, which is an Internationally convicted Monopolist.

Which begs the question, are Taiwanese Lawmakers so stupid to make laws that prevent their Governemnt from having a real choice for purchases, or are MS's lobbyists also very active over at the WTO?

Re:OSS is gaining momentum

--
From http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f4900/4909.htm [usdoj.gov] (Microsoft Conclusions of Law and Final Order, May 98)

"The Court having entered judgment in accordance with the Findings of Fact and the Conclusions of Law on April 3, 2000, that Microsoft has violated 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C., as well ... "

--
From http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/us c_sup_01_15_10_1.html [cornell.edu] (USC, TITLE 15 > CHAPTER 1, aka 'Sherman Act')

  1. Trusts, etc., in restraint of trade illegal; penalty

  2. Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty

--

So under what set of FUD is it that you beleive MS is *not* a convicted monopolist? Pay close attention to #2 there of the Sherman Act.

I dunno about the OP, but I would prefer to have free and open competition for OS. Unfortunately, we havent had that for at least a decade now - MS has and continues to see to that by its use of monopolistic lock-in strategies that prevent potential customers from objectively evaluating multiple options - since their data is in secret-proprietary MS format, and/or their business partners are only willing/able to communicate using secret proprietary MS formats, they have no choice but to use MS, even if it is a royal suck-ass POS. Add in that MS has and continues to force OEM PC vendors to choose between offering only MS on most systems, paying probably ten times what they are now per machine to only offer it on some, or offering it on none, and you get a recipe for a market as far away from 'free and open competition' as is possible.

Two Part Strategy For Dealing With The MS Problem

This sounds like the common strategy to deal with the Microsoft problem:

1) Draw a box around all existing Microsoft software infesting the government or company in question. Forbid the growth of any Microsoft software outside this box.

2) Once the Microsoft infestation has been contained and growth halted, slowly start purging the existing Microsoft software and formats with clean and open solutions like OpenOffice, OpenDocument, Apache, Linux, BSD, XML, etc...

MS Corporate Affairs

MS has serious corporate affairs problems and its lobbying strategies are part of the game.

E.g. in Europe: When MS gets the scum of US lobbying to Europe and they are unable to adapt to Europe, no wonder parliament rejects them. Even EU-Commissioner Wallström spoke negatively about Microsoft:
"And I was very disappointed to learn that Microsoft has agreed to block Chinese blog entries that use words like democracy, freedom, human rights and demonstration." It seems like Microsoft is not alone in "bad company"." -- which implies the Commissioner openly called MS a "bad company".

Guess Taiwan will also be excited about those MS-"relations" to China.
--

I mean, look at political radicals like DCI/TechCentralStation, or persons like Jonathan Zuck or Hugo Lueders which served Microsoft's interests in lobbying. No wonder they lose.

Whenever Ms is in trouble they hire a whole universe of unsound lobbyists which poisons their reputation in Parliament. Like the tobacco industry.

Media hates Microsoft, loves anti-MS stories. Everybody knows Microsoft and its products. Good for nasty stories.

Microsoft lobbyists usually do serious mistakes which fire back on Microsoft.

What will those idiots do now? Hire everybody they can get and further ruin their reputation in Taiwan. Hire lobbyists which will execute the strategy the public expects. What will civil society do? Gratulate MS for the great aid to their lobbying efforts.

Black gold?

This is Taiwan we're talking about.

When they say they'll reduce purchases on Microsoft-related products, they actually mean that 25% more IT-related money will go into various politicians' pockets.

Hardware companies?

I wonder what this means for Taiwanese hardware makers that, until now, have only provided Windows drivers.

Somewhere in an office in Redmond...

A chair with the words "Made in Taiwan" is being thrown.

13.8 Million Internet Users

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ tw.html [cia.gov]

22,894,384 (2005) in population, 13+ million people are online. Making legislative body to make policy against a major player in computing industry (Microsoft in this case), may create one of the most damaging ripple for Microsoft.

Although that 13.8 million internet users won't turn off their Windows machines over night, but it's plausable to tinker with the idea that Taiwanese government may legislate a similar policy to goverment contractors and corporations dealing business with Taiwanese government to enforce private sectors to depend less on Microsoft product. And knowning China and her relationship with Microsoft, this may be interesting to see how Chinese government will react to this plausable senario.

What's the ratio

Of legal licenses, at least within government use? 25% sounds like a lot, but if 75% of their desktops are running unlicensed MS software then MS is not really taking a hit with this 25% reduction.

Taiwan? Buying Software??

Who'd a thunk it! Next they'll be a story about the Chinese negotiating with Hollywood to drive down the prices on DVDs.

It's a Whole New World!

Microsoft software is not just Windows

The article doesn't say that the govenrment must reduce the use of the Windows OSes; just Microsoft software, so Taiwan could just use different databases, office suites, etc

Another Bully Stared Down

So Taiwan is willing to stand up to both Microsoft and China! Way to go! I wish other industrialized nations had that kind of courage!

It's a national security issue

When choosing an operating system for government use, particularly in areas such as law enforcement, taxation, military, or legislative administration, the choice between open and closed source operating systems boils down to national security.

By choosing an open source system such as Linux, a nation has the power to audit and fix holes in the operating system which leave the government open to espionage. Choose Windows, and you will have to count on an American company to keep your computers secure from such glaring problems as the WMF bug. Choose Windows, and you will have to hope that American intelligence agencies and Microsoft billionaires and their buddies are honest enough to proactively discover problems, inform you of them, and fix them. Choose Windows, and you bank on Microsoft spending its money towards improving its existing products, (through, for example, exhaustive security audits), as opposed to earmarking that money towards ridiculous expansionistic endeavors into other business markets (too many to list here), and polishing up the next versions of their cash cows: Office and Windows.

Now, interestingly enough, this argument can be expanded to encompass concerns about corporate espionage. Do you trust your corporate secrets to Bill Gates?

If I was a MP in Taiwan, I'd introduce legislation to BAN government use of proprietary, closed-source operating systems. It's a matter of national security.

In other news...

...Microsoft will help China upgrade their ICBM-installations using Windows-CE and Windows-Vista.
In a comment, Bill Gates was quoted as saying: "We will help China bring clarity to the world (tm), especially to insignificant provinces on the south of their border."

Venezuela did the same thing

But not because of licencing. Because of national interest. Recently a union threatened to shut down the power plants and oil refinery infrastrure via programming and the government was terrified at the prospect of not being able to get their software running, or, if something was done to damage it, fixed.

doh

As much as I want to say, "HELL YEA TAIWAN" I won't... But I will say that if the Taiwanese people ever get a major country-spread disease such as Malaria, Bill Gates will probably not help them..

Alternative to dictating reduction

demanding that the government reduce purchases from the software giant by 25 percent this year..... said however that the resolution may not be binding because it runs against fair trade regulations in Taiwan.

Rather than dictate a reduction which may trigger a legal mess, why not create an "encuragement" program, such as returning into a department's budget the cost savings from altneratives. Thus, if an office uses MySQL instead of MS-SQL, then let them keep the money that would go for MS-SQL rather than remove it from their budget?

It is difficult to get away from MS-Office because of document compatibility issues. However, server-oriented stuff such as Outlook, IIS, and MS-SQL are fairly easy to replace by dissallowing new setups for new sites and requiring existing MS sites to write most new software for the OSS product (after training).

As a taiwanese, I would say don't be misleaded.

I would say this news is totally BS.

Taiwan is still in its early stage of democracy. The opposite party have controled taiwan over 50 years. Six years ago, they losed presidential election. Now, the opposite party is trying its best to get the power back. They are willing do anything.

Last friday, parliament in taiwan was in a mass. They cut off 25% annual budget (of everything) just trying to stop current leading party to do anything. That is why you see this news. The f*ckers in Parliament do not care anything about OSS. They did not vote against Microsoft, they voted asainst leading party.

Attemtp to end near monopoly?

If they can cut 25% with no problems, then there's no "monopoly" at all. This is grandstanding. It's also stupid policy. They should try to get the best value for their money. If Microsoft offers the best value for their money, then they should go with it. If not, then they should go with something else. But arbitrarily eliminating a company's products from consideration only allows the competing products to charge more and/or get away with offering less functional products.

Re: And replace Windows with?

> They can replace it with OSX computers, thus spending a lot more money in the process, or they can use some Linux variety which will not support most of the software they need, requiring custom solutions and ports, thus spending a lot more money in the process. So which one will it be?

The real question is, do they want to save a lot of money in the short run or a hell of a lot in the long run?

Re:And replace Windows with?

use some Linux variety which will not support most of the software they need, requiring custom solutions and ports, thus spending a lot more money in the process.

Who said freedom was cheap?

Besides, this would be a one-time cost that would get them off the Microsoft upgrade treadmill - a cost that would pay for itself in time.

Re:And replace Windows with?

XP a factor for a long, long time still? I thought Microsoft had some sort of support/redundancy cycle that very much prevented such a thing, especially if maintaining security is a concern to the customer, and XP has been around for a few years now.

Re:Red Flag!

In fact "China" is a universe of different nations and cultures. Taiwan is a seperate state and belonged to China in history. Taiwan is no part of China and a totally different political system and culture. Today a reunification of china and Taiwan is as absurd as a reunification of India and Pakistan.

Re:Red Flag!

I'm pretty sure that only China thinks it owns Taiwan.

Re:Red Flag!

There are a whole lot of Taiwanese people who would agree with your characterization of Mainland (PRC) China's "ownership" of any part of the political system of Taiwan.

Frankly, I smell a troll.

Re:This is crap

You are right, your comment is crap. Getting out of the dependency on a single company as it is now exists with Microsoft is reason enough -- no matter where that company is based. Whether or not there are problems with the US (there are, and not surprisingly so) might be a factor, but by far not as important as the problems of single vendor lock in that already exist and will become bigger in the future unless something is done against it now.

Re:This is crap

It is probably more the conflict of Taiwan with China and Microsoft's recent moves to take part in the biggest party in the world. And that MS lobbyists are nuts.

Re:how much

erm ok then , 5 million billion squillion quid

http://english.www.gov.tw/e-Gov/index.jsp [www.gov.tw]

yay , i win .

Re:Windows is the only real option

Windows is the only real option
What the heck else are they going to use? Linux? Ha!

Hey Steve, stop wasting your time in these forums and go back to work!

                                                                                                        --- Bill

Re:Parent NOT a troll

Seems like an insightful comment to me.