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Microsoft = nondemocratic

12:19 / 08.02.02

Push in Germany for the goverment to use Open Source software. Because it's more democratic.

China, South Korea, and Thailand are considering similiar plans, on similiar grounds and/or on the grounds that they don't want to rely on a foriegn company to heavily. Not sure if this will go anywhere, but it's still kind of fun.

17:58 / 08.02.02

It's not only seriously entertaining but it's also a tremendously dangerous idea for all those huge corporations unused to the idea that individuals may work together just to prove that they can make something great.

pointless and uncalled for

18:22 / 08.02.02

Not to piss on the anti-corporate fireworks, but what's the economic impact of using Open Source software.

Will this leave the taxpayer footing the bill for any ensuing "incompatible" shitstorms.

Excuse my ignorance on software issues and educate me.

21:43 / 09.02.02

Microsoft is only interested in compatibility across it's products.

When you try and make something else compatible with Windows, it's a whole different story. Microsoft has a habit of taking standard protocols, and adding their own undocumented extensions to make life difficult for rivals.

The fact that - by definition - all source and protocols are availible for Open Source systems means that it's easy to intergrate software with them.

[ 10-02-2002: Message edited by: Wheaty-G ]

11:27 / 10.02.02

quote:Will this leave the taxpayer footing the bill for any ensuing "incompatible" shitstorms.

Well, the taxpayer already foots the bill for fuck-ups with M$ software. I don't know if anyone's actually managed to sue them for bugs in their programs, probably there is some get-out clause in the user acceptance conditions.

I think it's possible and probably laudable to base a large, reliable network on open-source software, but I'm suspicious it might take more tech knowledge being used in the planning stage than is usual in any large organisation, let alone a government.

I don't think it's practical to *always* use open-source software for *everything*, but I definitely think that if you commission a system it should be open-source. This would encourage proper competition for contracts and mean that companies would find it harder to get away with producing obscure, buggy software in the knowledge that they're the only people who can fix it.

Maybe Germany will become a mecca for all the open-source nuts out there... that's not necessarily a bad thing for a country which has a programmer deficit.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:44 / 11.02.02

I wonder if this will have knock-on effects for the European Computer Driving License which basically tells you how to use Microsoft Office and IE. Although to my knowledge thus far, the only people doing the thing are council employees who get it free because it's so ridiculously expensive.

13:57 / 11.02.02

quote:Originally posted by w1rebaby:

I think it's possible and probably laudable to base a large, reliable network on open-source software, but I'm suspicious it might take more tech knowledge being used in the planning stage than is usual in any large organisation, let alone a government.

Many companies are already using Linux as a cheaper alternative to Unix for their backend. Not sure how large these networks are. I'm sure there's an issue of size. BUT, it is much easier to integrate a linux machine with a unix backend, then it is to do so with a Windows machine.

My understanding from what I've read is that the Open Source software will be used on desktop machines, and some servers. I assume that critical servers will remain Unix (I'm assuming critical servers are using Unix).

Glossary:

Unix: a large, expensive, operating system that is used on the large majority of critical servers (meaning, if the server goes down, people get fired). Unix is a workhorse in the OS fields, but doesn't work on PC's.

Linux: the most popular Open Source OS. It is basically a cheaper (sometimes free) version of Unix, built for the PC.

Other Open Source OS's: most are basically PC versions of Unix. After Linux, the most populiar is probably the BSD family.

NOTE: Unless the net admin doesn't like their job, and is looking for an excuse to be fired, critical servers ussually run Unix, NOT Windows products. Microsoft doesn't even use Windows products on their critical servers. It's just a given in the industry that no Windows based products can beat Unix. And that if you can justify the cost of Unix, you use it.

17:59 / 11.02.02

Linux is getting beyond this - it's being used increasingly for critical servers.

checkout -
Oracle's 'whole business' to run on Linux

& it's getting credibility from the big guys - IBM has released a $400,000 mainframe running linux.

IBM Releasing First Linux Mainframe

quote:The machine, intended to form the nerve centre of a corporate network of thousands of computers, is significantly cheaper than IBM's non-Linux mainframes, which typically sell for $750,000 US.

Linux also has a strong following in the embedded devices market - the computers that are embedded in electronic devices/machinery etc.

...and also Apache, the OpenSource webserver software that runs a good proportion of the internet

[ 11-02-2002: Message edited by: Wheaty-G ]