Jerusalem – The Israeli government will not renew a contract for various Microsoft desktop software at the end of the year, it said on Tuesday, citing a change in license terms it said would double the price.
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Under its current framework agreement with Microsoft, Israel pays more than 100 million shekels ($27 million) a year for the procurement of Office desktop software, Windows and server software for ministries and government offices.
According to the Finance Ministry, Microsoft is trying to shift Israel from a licensing system where it owns the software and can use the software as it wishes, to a subscription system that is similar to renting.
The ministry noted that the change, which includes moving data to the cloud, does not meet the government’s needs. It said the state had been negotiating with Microsoft officials in Israel for a year to no avail.
Microsoft in Israel declined to comment.
Israel plans to freeze the existing license structure owned by government ministries, which may be used without further payment.
“This will also encourage government ministries to re-examine their needs of using Microsoft technology or switch to other technology alternatives,” the ministry said.
LibreOffice – a free office suite that is actually good. Yes, there will be a few problems sometimes going between LibreOffice and MS Office, but if you use the brain given to you it can be resolved.
A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment. Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position and course to fly to the airport.
The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, drew a handwritten sign, and held it in the helicopter’s window. The pilot’s sign said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.
People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign and held it in a building window. Their sign read: “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER.”
The pilot smiled, waved, looked at her map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER” sign helped determine their position. The pilot responded, “I knew that had to be the Microsoft building because they gave me a technically correct, but completely useless answer.”