ZDNet: Why Nader’s Microsoft Plan is Flawed

“Let me get this straight. Ralph Nader — former presidential
candidate (and close friend of Al Gore), consumer crusader and
political activist — believes the way to bring Bill Gates to his
knees is for President Bush, in the guise of the Office of
Management and Budget, to mandate that the government limit its
purchases of Microsoft products.

“In other words, spread the dollars around to Apple, IBM, Corel,
Linux firms and other manufacturers to encourage competition and
get better pricing. Or as Nader himself told Reuters, “The only
consumer in North America who can break up the Microsoft monopoly
simply through purchasing strategies is the U.S. government.”

“In a letter addressed to Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., Director of
the OMB, Nader also suggests other remedies, like having the
government “consider a cost benefit analysis to determine whether
dominant software providers should make their source code public,
in order to enhance interoperability with products offered by
smaller competitors.” Or, he said, the U.S. government should
consider compelling Microsoft to port its Office suite to competing
platforms…”

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