From: "Joe Barr" 

I like to think the stories on MS extortion in Austin and the TDCJ have
something to do with a city finally finding the backbone to stand up to the
bastards.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm


Microsoft loses showdown in Houston

By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY

HOUSTON ƒ ” The people who run this city recently heard a familiar pitch
from Microsoft: Sign up for a multiyear, $12 million software licensing
plan or face an audit exposing the city's use of software it hadn't paid
for. Microsoft demonstrates new projects and upgrades as it tries to boost
sales. By Elaine Thompson, AP

Microsoft warned that the city could be slapped with stiff fines for using
any Microsoft software for which it could not produce receipts.

Scores of other businesses and public agencies, facing a similar dilemma,
have agreed to the new licensing deals ƒ ” a linchpin of Microsoft's growth
strategy.

Not Houston.

The nation's fourth-largest city rebuffed the offer and has embraced an
obscure competitor called SimDesk. SimDesk delivers software over the
Internet at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft's Office, a software suite
used on 94% of America's office personal computers. Houston is giving
SimDesk to tens of thousands of residents and businesses, free. And it has
begun using SimDesk as an Office substitute on at least half the city's
13,000 PCs. (Comparison: SimDesk vs. Office)

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