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EU IDA Study On OSS
Werner writes ""European Commission Interchange of Data between Administration" (EU IDA) study on the use of open source software in the European public sector - you can
get it in PDF or DOC."
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The link leads to an empty page... Could anybody post a mirror?
To their credit, they also have PDF... But this seems to be irrelevant anyways, as currently their site only shows a white page.
The site requires JavaScript enabled. If it is not enabled it says that you should be running with Frames enabled. (D'oh!)
This URL (http://ag.idaprog.org/Indis35prod/doc/333) seems to have the fundamental page.
Those who do not learn from Dilbert are doomed to repeat it.
Because free software WYSIWYG word processors are inferior, and because M$Word is the defacto standard in corporate and goverment officies.
How many would have been able to read an AbiWord document? Or an OpenOffice document?
They did produce a PDF too, so it's not like they are completely closing the document.
Preferably they should have released it in plain text or HTML too, as you said, or RTF. Of course that would have lost the fancy formatting.
Seems like we need a good open standardized WYSIWYG oriented xml based format for editing and storage. PDF and PS is a bit problematic to load into an editor... How good are the various formats used by open source word processors and office suites? Could they settle on one format to standardize?
pinkNoise
Being an OSS fan, after this I was happy enough to find a decent list of "possible reasons" to use OSS in public sectors nevertheless, most notably they found out about Security and Privacy, which they even seperated from another bonus, Freedom. Did RMS write this report? I think it is definitely worth reading!
This sig is stolen from someone who had a much better idea than I had.
Vey interesting set of arguments from one of the pdfs. A very interesting political argument for the use of OSS. In interviews most IT managers expressed worries over a dominant vendor rleationship with Microsoft and expressed a desire for alternatives from independent private vendors. Doesn't this have relevancy to the Microsoft lawsuits, especially when you consider this was published by the European Commission. Perhaps the technology directorate and the competition directorate can agree on this and launch an action with the European Court.
This from the first pdf: "the word 'free' in free software is used as in 'free speech' and not as in 'free beer'" Wow, I never though an EU document would include the phrase free beer.
So the EU IDA on OSS in PDF and DOC includes the FSFs GNU and BSD UNIX but not MSFT, MS-DOS or otherwise, because of the actions by the US DOJ over MSIE, even though they FUBARed the whole thing because of W.
HTH.
Liberty in your lifetime
Seems like we need a good open standardized WYSIWYG oriented xml based format for editing and storage.
AbiWord provides a just this. See the file format section of the AbiWord FAQ or the AbiWord XML DTD.
Enjoy!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
> How many would have been able to read an AbiWord document?
Anyone who downloaded the ~3MB of Abiword from Abisource.com.
I dont think it would be unreasonable to offer it in abw format, Its not like Adobe Acrobat Reader comes as standard with windows.
its beyond me hy they dont just offer it online in HTML and then offer the other formats for anyone who wants to print it (or even Zipped Html for those who want to read it offline).
Execpt that Quarz is about as open as a death-row prison
Here's a mirror of the PDF documents:
:)
http://www.informatik.umu.se/~meson/oss-eu/
Please use the main site if possible. Don't know if the sysadmin likes this mirror
Because it's an awful format. For example, if you have a document which is expecting to go to A4 sized paper, you can't print it on letter sized, and vice versa.
Much depends on how you define ``better.'' If ``better'' is stuffing Microsoft's coffers to the bursting point and extending their reach, then things are in a bad way and getting worse. If OTOH ``better'' means you don't need to swap an arm, a leg and all of your privacy for infrastructure and basic tools, then the millennium is finally arriving.
Using your own reasoning, making every street a toll road and charging people to breathe must be good for business and therefore for the world.
Personally, I feel that any sane review of history will find that what is good for big business is almost universally bad for everyone else, notably including individuals, government, the environment and poorer countries. Businesses should exist to fill a need, not to create a need.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
TLA city, or are you just in love with your shift key? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
This is a link to Microsoft's Partnership Profile on Unisys' web site.
Your reality is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. - Baron Munchausen
Actually, Adobe has *published* the specifications of PDF, which is the primary reason that Apple switched to Quartz (e.g. they could use it without forking over $$$ to Adobe). Nowadays that spec is implemented by XPDF and Ghostscript.
Since the bugfixes were only produced for the newest software, which you must then buy in order to have the bugfix. Oh, er, oops, you have to buy a new OS to run that, and oops again, you have to buy new hardware to run the new OS.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Absolutely. The difference is, we're not charged for every individual use of the road, which is the problem being originally addressed. One of the reasons that every street and footpath isn't tolled is the riot that would ensue when people couldn't visit their neighbours for free any more.
But there's another difference, too. Your proposed methodology would eventually tax tracks through the scrub, walking along the beach, probably even swimming. There would be no ad-hoc route formation without it first being assessed and dutied.
Outlook creates a need for virus scanners. IIS creates a need for intelligent firewalling or reverse-proxying. Word creates a need for document decoders and extra backup technology.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing