#Canadians, this is your Government of Canada on #Microsoft (and this is only one of many M$ contracts this year).
"Just say no!". Elbows up eh?
0 Boosts
0 Likes
We need to see a plan on getting that lowered, and I would love a new rule to put a freeze on any new deals with Microsoft within our government.
@leftylabourtech Can you imagine how transformative a third of a billion dollars a year would be for Linux and BSD developers who beg for rent and pizza?
@datum To be fair this is a "multi-year contract", but it's only one of many M$ contracts
And yes, this one contract alone would do miracles for FLOSS development.
Last time I looked at The Document Foundation's annual financial statement, they ran on about 1.5 million euros a year. That's peanuts for a government.
@datum That's the thing about neoliberalism though - they're not looking for efficiency. Their ideology sees giving $350M to a foreign monopoly as 'fostering a competitive market' somehow, but directly funding a free, open-source solution as an 'anti-competitive state subsidy.' (edit for clarity: operational vs capital expenditure)
This despite the fact that money in the hands of Canadian developers just ends up circling back to them through taxes and economic spending and money given to Microsoft gets used for yachts, trampling competitors and buying political influence.
#neoliberalism having stripped the assets elsewhere seeks to strip the assets of the state for profit.
And if Yanis Varoufakis is correct, we are shifting from neoliberalism to #technofeudalism
@leftylabourtech 👆 Not entirely sure, but I'd say we're already there. @datum
@zazzoo @datum If there is a "positive" to come out of all of this shit, it's that now more than ever before folks are open to the idea of building alternatives to the (mainly US-based) tech lords.
As someone who's been talking about this stuff for over two decades, finally folks are starting to listen and I no longer get blank stares. :)
@leftylabourtech Seriously I thought maybe we'd get some traction when the pandemic happened, with the collapse of global supply chains, shortages and spiraling inflation resulting in rampant profiteering. The utter frailty and unsustainability of the system laid bare for all to see.
The powers that be shut that down fast, though, forced everybody back to work, declared the emergency 'over' somehow.
We saw it again with Trump's tariff wars.
We saw it again with the pointless assault on Iran.
May it all stick, at some point.
@zazzoo @datum Having kicked around the left for half a century, I look at the seemingly "small" wins and changes.
When I was a primary school kid, the Vietnam War was raging. It took years for a mass opposition to develop. With the Iraq War, the Palestine genocide, the Iran war,, the development of opposition to these wars has been instant.
Sadly it hasn't stopped them, but the opposition is huge.
@leftylabourtech lying to us.
When we get tired of Carney they will offer us the return of Harper. We need to pressure Liberals to start standing up, just like the Democratic Party in the US.
The lie that we have to become fascist to defeat fascism is insane.