EU talks with Microsoft called a contradiction-New York Times

BERLIN — the European Commission, which is to insist on the Continent to consider using open-source software compatible to make their computer systems more Governments, is negotiating with Microsoft to extend the use of the own Windows operating system on 36,000 government computers, a spokesman said Monday.

Antony Gravili, a spokesman for Maros Sefcovic, Commissioner responsible for Government, said that the agreement covers 42 agencies and institutions that comprise the bulk of Europe's Central Government.

"By negotiating a large order which we hope to drive down prices," said Mr. Gravili.

Of the Commission four years, € 49.8 million or $ 70.7 million agreement to buy Windows licenses through a Microsoft vendor, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, expires on 31 May. The Commission is using a procurement method called a "negotiated procedure" to expand the license agreement for up to three years without the contract and make a public bid to extinguish.

"The Commission asks Member States to move towards open standards and interoperability, but the Commission itself does, of course, nothing of the sort," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe, a group advocating for open-source software. "The public message is that we want you to innovate and improve your IT systems. The subtext is that we don't want to do this yourself. "

The debate is typical of the high-stakes commercial competition about how software is sold, which until now largely by companies like Microsoft, the dominant seller of operating systems, by means of direct licensing agreements is defined.

Microsoft's share of the global operating system market, estimated at more than 90 percent, according to Gartner, encourages companies and Governments to use software to their own systems remain compatible. But increasingly, many companies and some Governments, such as the city of Munich, open-source software, which is given away without license fees in exchange for installation and maintenance contracts.

Mr Gravili, the Commission's spokesman, said there was no contradiction between the extension of the use of Windows and the European interoperability framework, the policy recommendation the Commission has adopted last year that encourages the Governments on the Continent to use open source software, if applicable.

"The Commission is one of the largest users of open-source software in the world," said Mr. Gravili. He said that the Commission makes use of more than 250 different types of open-source software from companies like Red Hat, Atlassian and Balsamiq Studios. Daily activities in Brussels run on more than 350 servers using the Linux open-source operating system. European Union-websites use 850 servers with open-source software.

In 2005, the European Commission considered, but decided against the Government, from computing infrastructure to convert to open-source software, saying the charges were priceless.

Mr. Gerloff, which is headquartered in Aachen, Germany, the question of whether the Commission's decision to expand the Windows licenses was based on "software lock-in," a situation where large customers, as the Commission, often are forced to keep buying the same software to avoid the additional costs and the work of the switch to a different system.

Such decisions can generate short-term savings but increases in the dependency of one large buyers of vendors as Microsoft, that can only determine the price.

"By the only extension the relationship with Microsoft, the Commission, the cost grows from the transition to an open system in the future," said Mr. Gerloff.

Jesse Verstraete, a spokesman for Microsoft in Brussels, declined to comment.

Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner responsible for the digital agenda, which the benefits of open-source software alternatives has adopted, and that as former Commissioner for competition completed a 10-year European antitrust prosecution of Microsoft, also declined to comment, said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman.

Graham Taylor, the chief executive of Open forum Europe, a Brussels-group whose members Microsoft competitors Google, International Business Machines, Oracle and Red Hat include, questioning the decision to expand Windows without a public bidding process.

"This decision seems to contradict the policy objectives IT recorded in digital agenda of the Commission and also, it seems at odds with the Commission's efforts to ensure that tendering procedures in Europe more transparent and fairer," said Mr. Taylor said.

In addition to the symbolic adoption of Microsoft products, will the Commission's decision on operating system licenses also probably lead to a comprehensive upgrade of the computers of the Commission, which on Windows XP, Windows 7, the latest version of the operating system running. Mr Gravili, the Commission's spokesman, said the decision about whether to upgrade to Windows 7 in treatment and was not related to the current negotiations.

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