Google Sues the Department of the Interior;

Fancy editor is retard.

Google Sues the United States of America
posted by Thom Holwerda on Mon 1st Nov 2010 23:36 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
That is without a single shred of doubt the most awesome headline I ever got to put on OSNews. This headline is so awesome I don't even need to write anything else, because it would just detract from the awesomeness. CueJohnny Guitar, with a lone wanderer riding his horse towards a Mojave sunset, after just having... Wait, where were we? Right. Yes, Google has sued the US Department of the Interior because its Request for Quotation regarding a messaging solution demanded the use of Microsoft software.
Obviously, didn't sit well with Google, and I'm sure other companies putting out competing software aren't happy about it either (does Red Hat serve this market?). Google is seeking permanent injunctions against the Department of the Interior moving forward with this specific Request for Quotation until the DOI allows decent competition for the RfQ.

Basically, the Department of the Interior is looking for a "single hosted email and collaboration services solution" for its 88000 employees. That's one heck of a potential customer right there - except that whichever company's order would be picked, Microsoft would always win: the DOI demanded the use of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal (BPOS-Federal).

The DOI justified this demand by stating that "based on extensive market research, the Department determined that although many companies can provide messaging services in general, they either cannot provide services that address the complexity of messaging requirements within DOI, or they could not meet the degree of security required by DOI".

Google points out that BPOS-Federal is a new product, and that there are no case studies or known customers who have implemented this product. In addition, BPOS-Federal has not been properly certified by any government agency at any risk level. Despite all this, the DOI still demands this tool.

Google obviously laments the security part of the DOI's justification as well, citing research which shows that Microsoft's software has serious downtime issues and security vulnerabilities. This is all marketing talk, of course, but there's an element of truth in there.

It's an interesting case, but I'm sure it's going to take ages before we hear anything conclusive about this.

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so let me get this straight. the DOI went to google, and probably some other companies, with a request for proposal to implement some sort of communications system for them. one of their requirements was that it use microsoft tech. how does this give google grounds to sue them? they can just deny the RFP. i'm a web developer, and i primarily work with wordpress as a CMS, but i just had a potential project come in that wants to use joomla. am i allowed to sue the prospective client because they want to use different tech than what i normally work with? someone with more legal expertise than me, please explain this, cause i don't follow the logic at all.

yea, I don't get it.

The article and thread are wrongly titled. Google is not Suing the government, they are simply trying to force them to open up the requirements stated in the RFP so it is not Microsoft specific and Google will have a chance to bid on it. This is pretty common where a company gets denied a chance to bid because of closed specifications

this.


google is still gonna take over the world sooner or later though.

lol@european news sources.

crocodile

That doesn't even make sen- HAHAHHAHHAHAHAH