back to article UK.gov beats down Microsoft software price hike to 1pc

Government bodies and agencies will pay 1 per cent more for Microsoft volume licences from 1 July under the newly penned Public Sector Agreement (PSA) 12, The Register can reveal. This compares to the massive 29 per cent average upswing in prices that is expected to hit commercial organisations in the UK when Microsoft aligns …

COMMENTS

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  1. Vince

    Oh well...

    Oh well then that seems entirely reasonable.

    Small ISPs like us can be charged 33% more for our licenses, which means our margins die and/or we have to increase costs to our customers (who will move to el big supplier who also uses a US povider for licensing and thus get the massively cheaper licenses they offer), while the need to do this is clearly nonsense because gov licensing can go by 1%, less than inflation. Lovely.

    Microsoft really do suck at this.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So,

    MS do the government a good deal and the government does nothing about MS screwing the rest of us. I hesitate to suggest that the two are connected - our government can't be bribed, after all, can it?

    1. Rob
      Go

      Re: So,

      Yeah but... why would the government stop MS from screwing us, it's Gov's favourite pass time screwing the public it's supposed to serve, if anything they probably gave MS a pat on the back and said "good effort".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So,

      Didn't the cabenet office say something about using OSS a little while ago?

  3. El_Fev
    Unhappy

    Oh my god, for the first time a UK government refuses to bend over and be raped....

    and only in th UK can that be a bad thing. feck I hate this country sometimes!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent ...

    whatever percent, it is still our taxpayers' money being handed to M$.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent ...

      What is the alternative though? they will want commercial support and if they stopped using Microsoft software there would be a transition period where they would be using both the old and new software meaning twice the cost.

      Many MPs probably couldn't use a free and open source alternative, they're not always very tech savvy.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Tom 7

        Re: 1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent ...

        And that's the exact head up the arse thinking that means we will forever be paying MS for something we could get for about 10% the price, probably less.

        And as for MP's not able to use the alternative what do you think they are doing - complicated programming in excel that contains some complicated function not available in Calc or mistakenly writing LOL at the end of emails to their offshore paymaster?

      3. toadwarrior

        Re: 1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent ...

        If they can't use thunderbird open/libre office and firefox then maybe they're not qualified for the position.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 1 percent, 3 percent, 5 percent ...

          It still riles me that Civil Servants are allowed full fat clients at all. They should really only have terminals with the hosts safely locked away well out of harm's way (preferably not in Eastern Europe or India though). Not many folks' job description involves the need to store data locally (or playing freecell either).

  5. Magnus_Pym

    I'd be interested to know...

    ... the breakdown of the MS licenses the Government has. I wonder if it is just a single catch all marked at changed at x pounds

    1. Tom 7

      Re: I'd be interested to know...

      I think you'll find their contract with MS excludes even a FOI request for that information which will be secure for reasons of 'commercial confidentiality'.

  6. Da Weezil
    Mushroom

    Redmond Rip off as approved by HMG

    Funny how despite being outside of the euro train wreck we are being screwed over by redmond and not a word from the Govt about how inappropriate it is to ignore international exchange rates, despite it hammering Uk businesses during a double dip recession.

    I really hope that some major companies grow enough 'nads to tell redmond to shove it, stop listening to the FUD from Microsoft and go open source for the areas where they don't need windows boxes (and many businesses could do just that right now)

    Maybe when the shysters lose seats and are looking for jobs on the boards of businesses up and down the UK that those businesses will remember that they did nothing. Time HMG went open source - after all they pay enough to outsource functions - maybe it is time they went the whole hog and made Capita et al earn thier money

  7. A J Stiles
    Unhappy

    Huh

    As a British taxpayer, I would like to know why any of my money is being exported to the USA to pay for proprietary software, which -- thanks to the enforced upgrade cycle -- is essentially a money pit; when an equivalent or superior Open Source product could be obtained at a lower cost, probably even creating some jobs for British programmers into the bargain.

  8. billium
    Linux

    When building computers, each and every year, you get cheaper and better technology (not hard drives due to floods) except for the M$ operating system which increases in price. Only a monopoly can do this. Some have to use Windows, but I'm sure government bureaucrats can be fed with open source.

    1. A J Stiles
      FAIL

      Wrong

      Nobody *has* to use Windows. Get yourself disabused of that notion right away.

      Wherever there is no Open Source solution *yet*, the same manual methods that we always used to use before computers can continue be used in the meantime, while one is being created.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Things increase in price every year, it's called inflation you idiot.

  9. I_am_Chris
    Linux

    How does this fit in with their new-found love of OSS?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/31/government_closed_source_kicked_back/

    Surely, desktop software like this is prime for the OSS treatment.

  10. JaitcH
    FAIL

    How many users really use all the features?

    If government is like many commercial organizations, many features of MS software are never used.and older versions are quite adequate.

    Even more to the point, Open Source software is more than adequate but Cameron wants to travel the high cost route. It's what Posh Boys do.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Considering the current economic crisis I think there are far more import things to be whinging and whining about.

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