#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?
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@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
@leftylabourtech
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.
#digitalsovereignty #cdnpoli #canada