[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Micro$oft is killing small town budgets- no mention of analternative?

[Steve Baker]

brian at pongonova.net wrote:

> The chances of this are slim to none.  One of the problems I've encountered when
> talking to to town "officials" about the problem is that the people whose jobs
> depend upon Microsoft technology (usually IT types with lots of money in Microsoft
> certs) are certainly not interested in pursuing a technology that will probably
> cost them their jobs.

I can certainly confirm that.  I tried contacting the Cedar Hill ISD IT person asking
that news of school events and reports from teachers *NOT* be emailed to parents in
Microsoft Word format - and gently pointing out that some features of their web site
only work in Internet Explorer (they even had URL's containing backslashes!).  This
seemed like a pretty reasonable request - but I was met with a barrage of pro-Microsoft
rhetoric/FUD - more than I've seen before in talking to IT people.  He wouldn't even
concede that their web site should be browser-neutral because some Windoze users prefer
Netscape.  ("They have the right tool for the job - why don't they use it." was his
reply to that one.)

I gave up that battle.

> But don't bother wasting your time trying to convince the city IT departments.
> You're seen as nothing more than a threat to their continued well-being.

Yep.  Depressingly that's true.

----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
Mail : <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>   WorkMail: <sjbaker at link.com>
URLs : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
       http://plib.sf.net http://tuxaqfh.sf.net http://tuxkart.sf.net
       http://prettypoly.sf.net http://freeglut.sf.net
       http://toobular.sf.net   http://lodestone.sf.net