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Germany, IBM Sign Major Linux Deal
Skip Franklin writes: "IBM and the German government are getting together to implement Linux as the government's computing platform of choice. The deal is being touted as a big blow to Microsoft, although personally I prefer the glass-half-full perspective of a big win for Open Source. The BBC has the story."
"It limits choice rather than increasing choice."
Yet another jaw-droppingly hypocritical statement from a Microsoft spokesperson.
Asikaa
Come in, twenty-seventy-seventy, your time is up.
Unix? Open source? I don't think so.
While the software itself is free to download from the internet, companies - such as SuSE, the German distributor whose version of Linux IBM is using - can still charge for technical support and other services.
They can, of course, charge any amount for any part they want. They just can't restrict your rights to sell it again (at least on the GPL'd portions)
In proprietary software such as Microsoft's Windows, on the other hand, a single company controls the code, setting licensing terms for users but blocking outsiders from accessing the code.
They'll let some select few view the source code... but it's a look, don't touch sort of relationship. "Shared Source" and all that crap.
I really wish people that wrote about this stuff had more of a clue about what they were writing..
If you'd read the article, you would've noticed that they are, in fact, using SuSE's Linux.
IBM is the service company doing all the work, though. I guess the government wanted to go with a big guy (either for support reasons or in order to take the "unreliable partner" argument away from M$).
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
How come Linux, Free Software and Open Source advocates can provide answers to the "difficult" questions but Microsoft's advocates CANNOT?
While I agree that the argument was incorrect as a whole, there is some truth in it.
AT&T did sell source code to corporations and gave it away for virtually nothing to Universities and other educational institutions. Hence one could say open source. Open Source however is indicative of the Open Source Initiative (OSI http://www.opensource.org). If one would be nit-picking, it isn't incorrect to say that UNIX was `open source'.
To further go into matters, some historical AT&T code is now released with a less restrictive license, thanks to Caldera. SCO used to govern the code and provide it for a fee to enthusiasts, which I believe was $100. While it has little value for todays computing, it is nevertheless out there. (At this time I can't seem to find the site, perhaps some kind soul can provide that).
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand
Connecting someone to the Nazis is not considered funny in Germany, even if you mean it in an humorous/artistic way. You may hate Microsoft as much as you like, this was inappropriate.
Seb
They're migrating the servers only to, i think, suse. The commission that had to decide which way to go came to the conclusion that, in a nutshell, linux is not ready for the desktop and that trainig expense would be way to high...
As far as I know, the idea is to migrate the servers to Linux and keep Windows XP on the desktops. Sound more like Tux has one foot in the door and the glass is about 1/8 full.0 2285.html
Check out http://www.bundestag.de/aktuell/presse/2002/pz_02
[sorry, German]
"Linux ist Koenig", which translates into Linux is King. Would I say this not likely? However you could say "Linux is geil", which translates into Linux is cool, but with emphasis on the cool factor. But I would say "Linux is cool, man!". And yes it translates into what you think. But a few years ago there was the Milka commercial with a "typical" Swiss old guy who said "Its cool, man" with a Swiss accent.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
The original Unix code, written by Bell Labs, who couldn't sell it, gave it away free, to universities, and whoever wanted it. Eventually Berkley got thier hands on the license, and BSD was born. In the early days, it was free, then it got licensed. Now, a version written from scratch is free again, thanks to our friends in the Linux Community
So there was, and then there wasn't but now there is now again free UNIX's.
I almost forgot to mention, there is now freebsd. Which is BSD with the copywrited stuff filtered out and re-written under a new bsd license that is a free for use license.
I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong
A lot of folks believe IBM provided Nazi Germany with electronic cataloging support which allowed for the Unpopular to be shipped-off to death camps:
Since its publication in February, Edwin Black's book "IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation" has stirred unprecedented controversy among students of the Holocaust, American enterprise and information technology.
Of course, an informed person might not believe every little thing they read. ;)
The BBC article does not mention the fact, that SuSE is actually involved in this deal. The German Linux Distributor will deliver its Linux software while IBM will manage the IT infrastructure.
In a somewhat related story, Taiwan is pushing free software.
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