[plug] Read this and wonder out loud, PLUGers

[William Kenworthy]

Add some support (examples in IT) to the statement "what government pays
full retail for the products it uses?" and forward as letters to the
editor of the Melbourne age or other rag - keep the tone of the email as
it is.

BillK  

On Fri, 2002-05-17 at 08:23, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Thursday 16 May 2002 23:26, Harry McNally wrote:
> > "This will result in a saving to Victorian taxpayers of more than
> > AU$19 million on the retail value of desktop software," said the Minister
> > for Information and Communication Technology, Marsha Thomson.
> 
> Marsha, what government pays full retail for the products it uses? You've been 
> well and truly had. You could probably get far better savings than 20% simply 
> by shopping around Microsoft OEMs for a day. No wonder they're happy to kick 
> $5 million of it back. Why didn't you even ask for a further $5M discount?
> 
> That's not a saving, that's a loss, probably in the $30-40 million dollar 
> range, and more importantly not counting further savings that could be 
> realised by Open Source, e.g. not having to buy virus scanner software as 
> well.
> 
> You've also done a lot of Australian developers out of a major opportunity for 
> local participation, preferring instead to make our balance of trade worse 
> and support only the local sales office of an incredibly well cashed-up 
> convicted monopolist and software pirate.
> 
> Now... how do I say all of that *nicely*? Or can I?
> 
> Cheers; Leon
>