Microsoft Cuts Prices As Paris Eyes Linux

2 Jul, 2004 at 11:25am ET Article published in Tech

In another sign that competition is heating up in the software industry, Microsoft Corp. has slashed prices by more than half for Paris City Hall as the French capital considers switching to low-cost open-source programs.

The software giant agreed to cut prices to suppliers who work with the city “to the order of” 60 percent, said a Paris official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday. Paris plans to spend $195 million on computers and software over the next three years in a push to upgrade obsolete systems. But more is at stake than the software bill—up to $18 million at list prices. A decision to ditch Microsoft would be a blow to the software giant at a time when a number of companies and governments are opting for the Linux operating system and other open-source alternatives.

First Munich, now Paris. Is the Microsoft house of cards beginning to fall? -KF

Source: eWeek

Comments

2 Jul 2004 ~ 11:49am mmonnin Now some America company needs to threaten as well so prices will come down some more over here.
2 Jul 2004 ~ 11:56am KingFish I think that will happen soon MM. You can bet that many American cities as well as abroad have been studying the Munich model. This should scare the heck out of Microsoft.

KF
2 Jul 2004 ~ 4:32pm deepsea MS just needs to open their eyes to the fact that the individual should get fair pricing, too.
2 Jul 2004 ~ 5:13pm KingFish That's a very good point too

KF
2 Jul 2004 ~ 5:32pm Thrax The Munich Model requires a broadly intelligent populace, which America enjoys not having.
3 Jul 2004 ~ 5:08am EyesOnly But sweden does.

I think.
3 Jul 2004 ~ 5:21am Shorty If they ditched the client license access model for all servers AND cleaned up their license agreements, they would be considerably less likely to be ditched in favour of open source.
3 Jul 2004 ~ 5:40am Jengo I hate microsoft.