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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."
I thought seeing this as a large hit against Microsoft WAS looking at the glass as half full!
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Wow, I'm pretty psyched about this news. Combine IBM, the company with the best track record for Linux products with Germany, the European nation with a similar reputation, and only good can result.
I've used Linux solutions by both of these companies (IBM's Linux superclusters and Germany's excellent SuSe distro) both at home and in high-impact low-failure-rate enterprise contexts. I have not once been let down, ever. Contrast this with the closed source free-as-in-shit Winbloze ME95NT, which nearly brought my life to its knees.
I can't wait to see what comes out of this groundbreaking deal! Linux may finally be able to compete against the lesser operating systems.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
HAL 9000 may have been a who(m) as opposed to a what/which, but crashing was certainly an option for HAL!
"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.
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?
The german government doesn't buy Linux, and IBM isn't selling Linux. Just in case you've been living in a box for the past 5+ years: IBM has turned into a huge SERVICE company, and that's what they're selling here: The service to make a solid concept, implement it and provide support for a Linux-powered government infrastructure.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Not alone
:-) There does seem to be an encouraging trend towards the use of Linux by big institutions and governments. And since people tend to "buy what they know" perhaps we will see a top-down pattern to Linux usage -- companies first, and then their employees at home -- rather than the bottom-up approach everyone seems to be expecting.
Mexico, for instance, has mandated open source in its education system - although it is widely believed to have botched the implementation. And Peru is considering a law mandating open source software.
Microsoft wrote protesting about the law and warning of collapsing software markets and portraying a nightmare scenario of incompatibility. But the answer - from a Peruvian congressman - refuted the letter point by point.
Hee hee! Viva la revolution!
I am not sure I agree with the Open Source vs Microsoft paradigm that everyone seems so caught up in. I think that people pick on Microsoft because they are big and visible, but no one picks on Adobe, or any of a number of large closed source companies when they lose contracts.
I think that there will always be some areas where closed source software is the best option (OrCAD being a good example), but many other areas are ones where open source simply is a better model of development-- operating systems, office productifity apps, some games, dev environments, etc. (there will always be closed source games, I think, though).
This is significant because it indicates that the Germans are making the very logical choices with regard to security (not trusting a foreign company), etc. and shows that open source IS the best solution in many cases.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
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
To Quote Richard Purcell, Microsoft's director of corporate privacy
Is it really going to be another 5 to 10 years before Microsoft's products security becomes "Trustworthy"?
From the article:
"We are raising computer security by avoiding a monoculture, and we are lowering dependence on a single supplier," he said in a statement."
and the poster commented:
This is not really a valid argument, since all systems need to be secure. More systems, more potentially open doors.
No. Diversity in computing paltforms (in a very general sense) increases total, overall security, especially to automated attacks, e.g. worms and viruses.
For example, in a network of 50% Windows and 50% Linux, a windows virus can directly infect only 50% of the systems. In a network of equal numbers of Windows, Linux and BSD, one of these new hybrid Win/Linux viruses will be unable to directly infect one third of the systems. And the rule goes both ways. Windows boxes will be untouched by Linux worms that use Unix-style features like sendmail and portmap remote exploits.
Even for non-automated attacks, some level of diversity is more secure. The potentially successful cracker has to know not one, but at least two or more attack methods to be able to get at all boxes in an overall system that contains a mix of Windows, Linux, BSD, Irix, VMS or whatever.
Because Germans like things that are large, expensive, and over-engineered?
:)
Oh wait...
"Any policy that favours one thing over another isn't helpful," a Microsoft Europe spokeswoman told the Journal.
"It limits choice rather than increasing choice."
I think it's time to proclaim this Microsoft representative a troll. Two way reality is "their monopoly is greatest tendency to achieve what he says it isn't good in this case".
By the way, I don't recall they would say anything good about any other platform or software. They are always favouring their side and limiting choices with their "Security by obscurity" and closed formats.
Well, things you say must really depend on one fact "Who got it and who hasn't"
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
Man, 30 years ago I would not have believed a statement beginning this way would imply victory for the little guy!!
Practice random senselessness and act kind of beautiful.
Once again, something got lost in the translation. "Free as in beer" got translated to "free beer", and the Germans couldn't sign the contract fast enough.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
What would be some good (funny) names for a German Gov't Linux distro?
BundesLinux
"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
GNU/Reich? BlitzGNU? Iron Penguin? Col. Klinkux?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
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.
Does this mean RMS will now want us to call Germany, GNU/Germany?
IBM offers SuSE on their servers, which, according to people who have actually read the article, is exactly what the Germans are buying. Red Hat is the default Linux for IBM servers, but several other options are available. It's quite likely, actually, that SuSE will have a share of the support contract, and so will benefit quite a bit from this, if not as visibly as IBM will.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
The disk defragmenter that ships with Windows 2000 and XP was written by Executive Software, a company wholly owned and run by scientologists. The German government and people, being thoroughly familiar with totalitarian philosophies and regimes, are VERY anti-scientology. They recognize and understand that scientology is Nazi-ism taken one step farther, it is a nazi-esque philosophy dressed up as religion. I should know, I once was a scientologist. Scientology is the closest thing to an amalgamation of the mafia, fascism, big business, and a mind control cult, with a money scam thrown in for good measure. Because of the relationship between Microsoft and Executive Software the German government has refused to implement computing solutions that utilize Windows 2000 or XP. At one point the German government was demanding that Microsoft provide them with a version of Windows 2000 that was free of Executive Software's code. They didn't want to support a group overseas that they were working very hard to eliminate in their own country, with good reason I might add. On top of this add things like Echelon and the accusation that Microsoft has installed back doors into windows at the behest of the US intelligence community and Linux makes absolutely perfect sense as the platform of choice. Using it doesn't help support an evil cult and it doesn't make you vulnerable to US government spooks. I'm very glad to see this.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.