[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“Last Friday (Oct 13, 2000), Canada Internet.com reported a
partnership between Canada Post and 3Web. The announcement boasts a
service, which can reach “70% of all Canadians”. You have probably
guessed the rest: This service, paid for with our tax dollars,
supports and promotes Microsoft to the detriment of other OS
vendors: This Federally funded program is implicitly restricted to
only those Canadians who buy their O/S from Microsoft. The 3Web
site presents an explicit message: There is no connection software
for Mac, Linux, nor, dare I guess, for BSD or OS/2….”
“The net result (if you pardon the pun): By adding significant
value exclusively to the US corporation’s products, knowingly or
not, Canada Post Corporation is in effect partnering with and
promoting Microsoft, a corporation already convicted of illegal and
predatory business practices, bolstering the sales of Microsoft
Windows by excluding over one fifth of Canadians, frustrating even
those users of the Canadian-made and world-class Corel
Linux….”
“The fix for this situation is really very simple and
affordable, even for a Crown Corporation: Canada Post should fund
the development of a portable connection client released as open
source software. The initial funding need only get the project
into a workable state suitable for open source methodology. An open
source license will allow and encourage porting of the software to
unsupported platforms.“