Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Monday 15 July 2002, 4:41 PM
Friday
Friday 12/07/2002
Microsoft gets the Norwegian blues, as the Nordic government cancels the contract that gave Bill and pals sole supplier status for public service software. It is an ex-contract. As the impetus seems to be towards open-source software, there's even a good chance that Python will be involved at some point.
Nobody expects Microsoft to take this sitting down, and while the company won't comment at the moment -- and nobody ever got rich suing the government -- it'll be quite out of character if the Americans don't aggressively seek to enforce the contract. The interesting questions of what the contract said, who signed it and what will take its place will have to wait until I either learn Norwegian or find someone else who speaks the language.
I long ago went off Norway, as the customs service required me to take all my clothes off on entry to Oslo one evening a few years back. My crime was to not have booked a hotel, which instantly labelled me a drugs trafficker: they do this quite a lot, judging by the full-colour printed leaflet they gave me afterwards saying "So, we've peered up your parts and you want to complain?" (précis of leaflet: "Tough."). The morose customs agent even had the gall to say: "It's worse for us than it is for you." I resisted the temptation to ask him to give it a go and find out.
But if Norway is going to think twice about handing over its entire governmental doings to Microsoft, I may yet think more warmly of the place. Be a while before I go back to Oslo, mind.
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet UK forums.
Microsoft gets the Norwegian blues, as the Nordic government cancels the contract that gave Bill and pals sole supplier status for public service software. It is an ex-contract. As the impetus seems to be towards open-source software, there's even a good chance that Python will be involved at some point.
Nobody expects Microsoft to take this sitting down, and while the company won't comment at the moment -- and nobody ever got rich suing the government -- it'll be quite out of character if the Americans don't aggressively seek to enforce the contract. The interesting questions of what the contract said, who signed it and what will take its place will have to wait until I either learn Norwegian or find someone else who speaks the language.
I long ago went off Norway, as the customs service required me to take all my clothes off on entry to Oslo one evening a few years back. My crime was to not have booked a hotel, which instantly labelled me a drugs trafficker: they do this quite a lot, judging by the full-colour printed leaflet they gave me afterwards saying "So, we've peered up your parts and you want to complain?" (précis of leaflet: "Tough."). The morose customs agent even had the gall to say: "It's worse for us than it is for you." I resisted the temptation to ask him to give it a go and find out.
But if Norway is going to think twice about handing over its entire governmental doings to Microsoft, I may yet think more warmly of the place. Be a while before I go back to Oslo, mind.
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet UK forums.
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