4 Ways To Help the Government Adopt Open Source Technologies
,----[ Quote ]
| Bob Sutor, Vice President of Open Source and Standards at IBM, issued a
| challenge to the open source community for 2008. One of his ten challenges to
| the community was:
|
| “Help governments adopt free and open source-friendly IT policies that permit
| maximal apples-to-apples comparisons of FOSS and proprietary software with
| regard to relative value for total cost of ownership, local business
| generation, and innovation of technology for the social good.”
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http://www.opensourceconnections.com/2008/01/30/4-ways-to-help-the-government-adopt-open-source-technologies/
Quote for the day:
"I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the
public good."
--Adam Smith
Related:
Yoohoo! EU Commission! Are you watching?
<Quote>
Here's some repulsive news from Microsoft, in an article on Yahoo!
News titled, "Microsoft pledges cash for IT in developing world" but
which I would more accurately, I think, call, "Microsoft Finds New Way
To Be Anticompetitive":
[...]
"Microsoft is still working through some of the 'technical
limitations' that remain in putting XP on the XO, the green PC from
the One Laptop Per Child project, Ayala [MS spokesman] said."
So, to compete with Microsoft, Linux needs to be able to spend 235
million to buy a market? There are also some interesting details on
deals being made in Russia, Mexico and Libya:
[...]
Of course, they can't put that honking Vista on these laptops. So,
it's XP forever, I guess, for the third world. Indeed the article says
XP will be the supported platform on low-cost PCs such as the
Classmate and Asus EEE, this despite the fact that Windows XP will
stop being available to OEMs in June 2008 according to what I've seen
announced. I hope those governments have figured out a plan on how
they will upgrade someday. Hahahaha. Their only hope is if Microsoft
can pick OLPC's brains fast and then figure out how to get a smaller
footprint.
[...]
So, bottom line? I read it as meaning that Microsoft would like to
join Intel in killing off One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop, because it
runs Linux on AMD, and because OLPC identified a new market in the
third world, and monopolies are like the grave -- they never say,
"Enough".
Please remember this day, next time someone tells you how
philanthropic Mr. Gates is. Monopolies these days not only crush
competition, they're willing to crush a charity to make a buck. I
would say any apparent cooperation with OLPC, therefore, is just for
show, folks. Those "technical" difficulties won't be solved, I figure,
until this new market is glutted with Microsoft on Intel Classmates
and Asus EEE's, loaded with XP, that old-fashioned operating system,
and none of their laptops can do for those children what the OLPC XO
can do. P.S. Children don't need training to use an OLPC XO. It's
designed to *not* need it. I hope OLPC patented everything before they
show Microsoft a thing. For real. Otherwise, someday we'll be looking
for prior art to overturn a Microsoft patent or two.
Yoohoo, EU Commission! Are you watching these maneuvers?
</Quote>
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080123114324664
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