Ralph Nader to the rescue again…

Hitting
Microsoft where it hurts

Ralph Nader and the Consumer Project on Technology are asking the federal government to take on Microsoft via the pocketbook instead of the courts, by using its purchasing power to solve “security and competition” issues in the software market. In a letter sent to Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels on Tuesday, consumer activists Nader and James Love of the CPT ask the government office to spell out exactly how much money the government spends on Microsoft technology.

“If you look at antitrust cases, they take a lot of money and they’re time consuming. Our way of thinking is it might be more efficient for the government to use its procurement policy,” Love said. “Almost nothing they’re trying to achieve in the current set of remedies is something that you couldn’t accomplish through procurement remedies.”