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

[Fred James]

I try to open such documents in StarOffice52 - if that doesn't work, I 
just assume the document isn't important (same for MS specific web sites).

Steve Baker wrote:

> 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.
> 
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...make every program a filter...