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Government IT and Software Procurement

I exonerate the Government on that point and turn my accusation against the members of that Committee. I made my representations and will continue to do so. This issue is as clear a case of illegal state aid as, for example, the BBC iPlayer—a case that will go to the EU—and Jam, the internet resource. Other organisations, such as BECTA, also have cases pending in the EU court. Why are schools advised on upgrades to Windows, but not on upgrades to OS X, for example, which is used by a couple of schools near me? I have every respect for Microsoft's technology and enterprise, and for its founder. However, during the court case against Microsoft, Judge Jackson in the US Department of Justice said—I would not have put it in such a way, as he said things that are quite damning—that Microsoft's executives had"““proved time and time again to be inaccurate, misleading, evasive, and transparently false…Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that ""lesser entities must respect. It is also a company whose senior management is not averse to offering specious testimony to support spurious defenses to claims of its wrongdoing.””" I think that that is harsh. I might choose to believe Microsoft when it tells me that the Office suite and other products provided for the NHS Connecting for Health programme are thoroughly interoperable and replaceable if they are not cost competitive—it has told me as much. I would like to believe the Government when they tell me that they have an efficient deal with Microsoft in relation to Connecting to Health, but I am less than happy that the details of the deal are subject to a confidentiality clause. Microsoft executives tell me that they have changed and that interoperability is the name of the game. Apple, Oracle and some of the other bigger firms are scarcely blameless, but my key point is that the institutional bias of the Government for this particular firm seems to be an open and shut case of illegal state aid. I choose to have a Windows computer at home and in my office. I am obliged by the Government—until I get my P45—to use a Windows computer if I want to apply online for benefits. If the problem did not concern software and I was forced to buy a Vauxhall car to use the roads, it would be a simply intolerable situation. The fact that this issue concerns a new industry makes the point less obvious, but none the less equally damning. Fundamentally this debate is about neither Microsoft nor open source; it is about eradicating the suspicion and certainly the prospect—indeed, I believe it is the reality—of illegal state aid being given to any software enterprise through the use of public resources.