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EU Report Advocates Pooling Open Source Software
bnoise writes "'European administrations should share software resources, a report published by IDA says'. IDA stands for 'Interchange of Data between Administrations' and is an European Commission initiative promoting the use of ICT in the exchange of information between EU administrations. The report extensively (147 pages) describes and comments Open Source Software licenses and promotes the use of source sharing among administrations and beyond. Its 'Legal Framework analysis' section alone is worth reading if you (still) don't know what license to choose for your next software development. Also from one of the authors: 'Study into the use of Open Source Software in the Public Sector' (June 2001)." ZDNet has a summary of the report, and the report is also available in non-PDF formats.
Film at 11
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c'est la premiere post !
and chew on my FP with your toothless, gummy, cummy mouth
q!
-- You are such a fucking fag
Its nice to see a government doing what I have learned in Kindergarden.
Sharing.
jesus was a monkey!!
I Agree With This Post.
And here's The Register's take on the story from this morning.
I already emailed my bank and told them I was against it. Although I probably did more damage than good... They probably didn't know about it before.
It couldn't be a bad thing to let your bank know you are against it.
Sounds like Europe is getting way more of a clue than us in the US are. OK so most of us reading slashdot have a clue, but 99% of the sheeple here don't. Maybe those terrible treaties that make us abide by european laws would work in our favor when europeans decided that proprietary software in the goverment is a no-no and they make it illegal!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26102.html
n.b:
"The study does not recommend any specific software platform or open source licence variant. But it does seem to take the view that pooled software should be exchanged between administrations, rather than being available to all and sundry, which suggests that the GPL won't be the way European goverment goes. It also considers the BSD licence and MPL, whereby "the code and the executable binary may be disassociated." This would allow the executable to be distributed with a proprietary licence, and hence would allow it to be restricted."
Go move to the EU with all of the other socialists.
As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.
Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.
So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!
2. First Steps
The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge; the support you receive here will be invaluable.
OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?
3. Don't Waste Time!
Now you need to set up your SourceForge homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!
4. Ask For Help
Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:
Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!5. The A-Team
So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.
Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!
6. Getting Down To It
Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.
Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!
7. The Outcome
So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...
Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?
THE OFFICIAL TACO-SNOTTING FAQ [slashdot.org]
:) Join me in a WIPO-snot?
By J. Wipo Troll, Esq. [slashdot.org], $Revision: 1.16 $
[This article attempts to document a vile, ungodly practice that runs rampant through the homosexual geek and hacker community, a practice known as âoeTaco-snotting,â or simply âoesnotting.â Taco-snotting is something that few geeks dare talk about in free or open conversation, but it is nonetheless a widely-practiced and dangerous form of homosexuality. If you or anyone you know has ever engaged in Taco-snotting, please get professional help [adequacy.org] before it is too late. â"ed.]
Why do I keep receiving emails from an individual calling himself âoeCmdrTacoâ?
You have been receiving unsolicited mailings from a certain Robert âoeCmdrTacoâ Malda [cmdrtaco.net], owner of the popular technology website slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. Actually, itâ(TM)s not a very âoepopularâ site in the common sense of the word; the site is rife with pimply, antisocial geeks and hackers, zit-faced nerds, communists, dirty GNU hippies [yahoo.com], and other societal rejects and outcasts. Itâ(TM)s also home to one of the worldâ(TM)s largest suspected pædophile rings, the infamous âoeSlashdot crew.â
Whenever Mr. Malda gets bored (and who wouldnâ(TM)t, running a site like Slashdot all day), he roams through the user database, penis in hand, looking for people who might enjoy engaging in homosexual activities with him. How he determines this is anyoneâ(TM)s guess; but if you have a homosexual-sounding nickname, or a nick with a letter of the English alphabet in it, youâ(TM)re a potential candidate.
This time, he found you. Lucky you.
Mr. Malda seems to be speaking in some sort of code. Do you know what it means?
CmdrTacoâ(TM)s code language is relatively easy to decipher. This pervert prefers to speak in thinly-veiled sexual innuendo (yes, thatâ(TM)s right: he wants you) to evade the watchful eye of Slashdotâ(TM)s parent corporation, VA Software [yahoo.com]. Mr. Maldaâ(TM)s âoeCommanderâ is, of course, his penis: a small, withered little thing that lives in his pants and only comes out in the presence of other male geeks or at the beck and call of Maldaâ(TM)s own lubed-up right hand. His âoeTaco bells [sonymusic.com]â are the shriveled testicles that droop beneath his Commander, and his âoeTaco sauceâ is his thin, runny semen. It should be more than obvious to you now what he means if he asked you to âoering his Taco bellsâ or âoetaste his gourmet Taco sauce.â
I would also guess CmdrTaco asked you to engage in a practice known as âoeTaco-snottingâ and, if he was in a particularly depraved mood at the time, a âoecircle-snot.â
Good Lord. And, yes, he did. What is âoeTaco-snottingâ?
âoeTaco-snottingâ is the term used by Robert Malda to refer to the depraved act of fellating another man (homo- or heterosexual; CmdrTaco is rumoured to prefer raping unwilling victims), then blowing the semen out his nose and back onto the face and body of his victim. Naturally, a long, bubbly stream of milky-white semen is left on CmdrTacoâ(TM)s face [go.com], dribbling out of his nose and down his cheek: hence the term, âoeTaco-snotting.â
And if thatâ(TM)s not bad enoughâ¦
A âoecircle-snotâ is a Taco-snotting circle-jerk, another practice common among the Slashdot crew [bastardgenres.com]. CmdrTaco, CowboiKneel [aol.com], and Homos get together and snot each other with their gooey, sticky cum â" spooging their jizz-snot all over each otherâ(TM)s faces and pasty, white bodies, until theyâ(TM)re covered head to toe with their own and each otherâ(TM)s man juice. This vile, ungodly ritual can go on for hours. For the homosexual penetration that follows this lengthy foreplay, Roblowme is usually there to provide plenty of anal lubricant; he owns a limousine service and has ample supplies of motor oil and axle grease ready to go.
To complete this perverted orgy, fellow faggots Michael, Timothy, and Jamie will usually join in, dressed in tight leather mock-S.S. uniforms, jack boots, and leather gloves. The homosexual shenanigans that follow are nearly beyond description. The whole group begins to snot each otherâ(TM)s spunk and whip each otherâ(TM)s pudgy asses with riding crops and chains until their pale, white geek bodies are exhausted and soaked in stinking sweat from the hours of passionate, homosexual revelry.
Ewwwwww. So, can I stop receiving these emails?
Hopefully, but I wouldnâ(TM)t count on it.
To begin with, you most likely forgot to uncheck the âoeWilling to Snotâ checkbox in your account preferences. CmdrTaco has probably already got the hots for your wad (do you have a homosexual-sounding nick?), and heâ(TM)s probably already been lurking outside your bathroom window for weeks with a camera, some tissues and lube, just waiting to pounce and declare you his new bitch. Thereâ(TM)s no escaping a geek in heat (trust me), so itâ(TM)s probably too late for you, but you can possibly rectify this situation. To remove yourself from CmdrTacoâ(TM)s sights, log into your Slashdot account, go to your user page, click on Messages, and uncheck the box next to âoeWilling to Snot.â Maybe heâ(TM)ll ignore you. Probably not.
I canâ(TM)t stop receiving these emails from CmdrTaco!?
If you indulge him in a Taco-snot or two, hemight leave you alone. You might also want to look into mail filtering, restraining orders, or purchasing a heavy, blunt object capable of warding off rampaging homosexual geeks in heat. Trust me, when they charge⦠oh, the humanity. If he gets you, and you let him Taco-snot all over you, you will most likely end up tied up in his basement to be used as his sex slave for the rest of your life (or until he accidentally drowns you in spunk in a circle-snot).
Have you ever been Taco-snotted?
Unfortunately, yes. I first met Mr. Malda at an Open Source Convention [amazon.com]. He invited me back to his room for a game of Quake and some âoegourmet Tacos,â but when I got there, the perverted geek jumped me and handcuffed me to his bed, stripping me. After taking his âoeCommanderâ out of his pants, Mr. Taco made me suck the withered thing six times, virtually nonstop. He then performed his vile Taco-snotting ritual on me three times over the next two hours, bringing me to orgasm after orgasm after sweaty, mind-numbing orgasm⦠then he snotted my own thick, gooey jizz back onto my face out of his nostrils! He snotted me two more times, first into my mouth, then again on my exposed belly.
CmdrTaco invited several of his Open Source (or rather, âoeOpen Sauceâ â" man sauce) buddies over to continue their ungodly snotfest. European hacker and known überfaggot Linux Torvalds raped my ass [yahoo.com] with his âoemonolithic kernel [yahoo.com];â his partner-in-crime Anal Cox used their âoenetwork stackâ in a multitude of unspeakable ways on and in every orifice of my defenseless, tender, young body. Michael Sims was there in his leather Nazi uniform, caning my previously-virginal ass with a bamboo pole and ranting about âoeall those Censorware [spectacle.org] freaks out to get him.â
That is so disgusting! How did you finally escape?
After about 16 hours of countless unholy, homosexual atrocities perpetrated against my restrained body, they all finally went to sleep on top of me, sweat-soaked and exhausted. I was left there, completely covered in bubbly, translucent jizz-snot, chained to the bed, with half a dozen fat, pasty-white fags lying around and on top of me. Fortunately the spooge coating my flesh worked wonderfully as a lubricant â" I was able to squirm my way out of the handcuffs and slip out the back door (of the apartment, not their back doors). Iâ(TM)m just glad I survived the awful ordeal. These sexually-repressed hackers had alot of built-up spunk in their wads â" I couldâ(TM)ve easily been drowned!
Thatâ(TM)s horrible. Does âoeTaco-snottingâ have anything to do with CmdrTacoâ(TM)s âoespecial tacoâ?
No, thatâ(TM)s a different disgusting perversion CmdrTaco indulges himself in. Mr. Malda is usually not satisfied with merely snotting your own jizz back onto your face, he most often enjoys involving his own bodily fluids in his twisted games. WeatherTroll [slashdot.org] has spent some time trying to educate the Slashdot readership [slashdot.org] about this vile practice (emphasis added):
You may be wondering what CmdrTacoâ(TM)s âoespecial tacoâ is. You will be wishing that you hadnâ(TM)t been wondering after you finish reading this post. To make his âoespecial taco,â CmdrTaco takes a taco shell and shits on it. He then adds lettuce, takes out his tiny withered dick (otherwise known as his âoeCommanderâ), puts his âoespecial taco sauceâ on it which means he jacks off on the taco, and adds a compound to make the person who eats the taco unconscious. Of course, the compound does not make the person unconscious until the taco is fully eaten. Thus CmdrTaco force-feeds the taco to the unsuspecting victim. After all, who would knowingly eat shit and CmdrTacoâ(TM)s jizz?
After the victim is unconscious, he is held against his will and used for CmdrTacoâ(TM)s nefarious homosexual purposes. This includes shoving taco shells up the victimâ(TM)s ass, Taco-snotting, and getting Jon Katz involved. Trust me, you do not want Jon Katz anywhere near your unconscious body. Also, rumor has it CmdrTaco is looking for a new goatse.cx guy [goatse.cx]. Donâ(TM)t let it be you!
Different ungodly perversion, yet no less revolting. It should be clear to you now that Robert âoeCmdrTacoâ Malda is a very, very sick individual, as are most of the Slashdot editors.
Does Jon Katz get involved in any of this? I thought he was a pædophile, not a homosexual.
Actually, Jon Katz is a homosexual pædophile. Heâ(TM)s also a coprophiliac, and, many suspect, a zoophile. Mr. Katz is somewhat of a loner and doesnâ(TM)t involve himself in the circle-snots, but that doesâ(TM)t mean heâ(TM)s any less of a freak than the rest of the Slashdot crew. Katz often engages in a game called âoejuicy-douching [aol.com]â with a harem of little-boy slaves that he has collected over the years: yet another vile practice which involves administering an enema to himself of the little boyâ(TM)s urine (forced out of them with a pair of pincers), spooging the vile muck from his ass back into the enema bag, then dribbling and slathering the goo all over himself and the boyâ(TM)s chained, naked bodies. If heâ(TM)s in the mood, he will sometimes skip refilling the enema bag from his distended anus and just squirt it from his ass [microsoft.com] onto the crying, terrified boys. Unwilling boys are further tortured with the pincers until they comply and allow Mr. Katz to juicy-douche them at will. A boy will usually last about two years before Mr. Katz either accidentally drowns them in diarrhea or kills them once they get too old, usually around 13 or 14.
Not content with being a pædophilic coprophile, Mr. Katz is also quite the zoophile. As if the sexual escapades with the helpless little boys arenâ(TM)t enough, Jon usually enjoys his juicy-douches best when his penis is firmly planted in a female goatâ(TM)s anus [yahoo.com]. He is also rumoured to get off on watching his little boys eat the goatâ(TM)s small, bean-like turds, and he often kills his older boys by letting his goats trample them.
â¦Are you getting hard writing this?
Why, yes.
No, thanks. Iâ(TM)m already CmdrTacoâ(TM)s boi toi.
________________________________________
* The URL of this document is
* Previous revisions are publicly available at
$Id: tacosnotting.html,v 1.16 2001/12/28 21:20:03 wipo Exp $
Copyright © 2001 J. Wipo Troll, Esq. [slashdot.org] Verbatim crapflooding of this document is permitted in any medium, provided this copyright notice is preserved, and next time you take a dump, you think of the WIPO Troll and all heâ(TM)s done to make Slashdot a better place.
- poopbot: news for turds, stuff that splatters
woohooo!
An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.
Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.
According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS.
Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).
The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.
Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".
The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.
I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.
This report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the contractor (Unisys Management Consulting Team).
Wasn't Unisys the ones that partnered with MS for the We Have the Way Out thing which advocated Windows over any UNIX? And now they're recommending Open Source software?
This was yesterdays news, slashdot, old news for ancient nerds, stuff that mattered 50 years ago!
LNUX is currently trading up 0.02. However, it's still well below 1 at 0.88.
I think we all remember seeing WCOM being delisted from the market, I expect to see similar results when it is revealed that LNUX is also hiding their losses.
It should happen soon anyways because they haven't been above $1 for a while now. I predict by the beginning of the new month we will see LNUX fall as it should have months/years ago.
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Just creating a pool of open source applications doesn't guarantee that a specific country's administration will decide to use applications in the pool. There is always a "not-invented-here" factor to consider in any human endeavor.
There is also the matter of recouping the cost of development. Which country will want to spend money creating applications, if the rest get them for free? A chargeback/share model of some kind would have to be developed to provide an incentive for countries to contribute to the pool.
As usual, the biggest problems to solve are not technical ones, but human ones.
But the motivation does : they seem to want applications restricted to administrations. If the software can't be looked at by independant programmers, a great opportunity of control by the public is lost. To know that anyone could peek at your code is a great motivation to do it right.To know exactly how the administration comes to some decision is important (why do I pay so much taxes ?)
and all these Windoze users never tale Linux serously... never underestimate the power of the Penguin...
SQT, as always, we appreciate your insight. We look forward to future frequent updates from you.
-- You are such a fucking fag
I've got some information the big wigs at VA Software may be interested in.
We're all here to save LNUX from its spiral down the toilet! Here's some information about how LNUX will be listed if certain conditions aren't met. It does'nt look good. For LNUX sake, let's hope their stock can close above $1 today...they're getting close!
It is widely thought that a company can be delisted if it's stock merely falls below $5 for a specific period of time. This is not totally true.
The only way a company can be kicked off for trading below $5 is if it doesn't meet one of the other minimum standards.
For instance, it may not have met Corporate Governance demands, failing to submit timely and accurate financial reports.
Companies could also be delisted if their stock falls below $5 and they don't have at least two market makers or at least 400 round lot shareholders (owning at least 100 shares).
There are also minimum thresholds for net tangible assets, total revenue and market value.
Currently, more than 120 companies are trading below $5, many of them Internet companies.
However, another 23 pure-play Internet companies are currently trading below $1 per share, according to Internet.com. They include Vitaminshoppe.com, Theglobe.com, Peapod Inc., PlanetRx.com and E-Stamp Corp.
And keep in mind that once a company's stock price falls below a buck, the situation becomes much more dire. This is because it can be delisted solely based on its stock price.
Here's how it works: If a company's stock trades below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days or six weeks, NASDAQ will issue a deficiency notice. Of course, if during that 30-day period the stock climbs above a buck and then slips below it again, the clock is reset.
In any case, the deficiency notice warns the company that it has 90 calendar days to bring its price up to $1 for 10 consecutive days.
The company may accomplish this through various actions such as a merger, acquisition or a significant transaction or order with another company. If the company is unsuccessful, it could mean the end of the game... delisting.
A bit harsh? Not really. According to Scott Peterson, Director of NASDAQ Media Relations, Nasdaq is fair to both the players (companies trading) as well as the fans (investors). "We go the extra mile for the company and try to work on them to keep their listing standards; we recognize that they value being listed on Nasdaq - but we believe it is also an investor protection issue - if they can't meet the requirements... we will delist them."
At the end of the 90 day period (if NASDAQ's standards have not been met), the company has the option of requesting a hearing - oral or written - before a panel of two securities experts (a securities lawyer or accountant) of their choice. The company typically will then appeal to the panel and explain its plan of how it will get its share price over its bid price, thus buying more time.
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I live in a small country which will be in the EU by the end of 2004 (probalby) and our gov is just thinking of singing the agrrement with M$ for the next two years and for now they didn't want to hear about the Open SOurce, may be now they will be willing to listen... I'm going to scream loud and clear...
Look at that bear lapping up that cool spring water. That's why it's yellow. Bear Whiz Beer
I read some sad news over at MSNBC.com, actor Rod Steiger has DIED at a Los Angeles-area hospital of pneumonia and kidney failure. Known mostly as Academy Award winner noted for roles in 'On the Waterfront,' 'In the Heat of the Night' and 'The Pawnbroker' ... he was truely an American Institution.
He will be missed.
Market data is delayed 15 minutes. Please see quotes.nasdaq.com for up-to-the-minute data.
Management Summary
Pooling Open source Software?
The Feasibility Study
The present Study is a feasibility study about pooling (or sharing, exchanging) software and knowledge between public sector administrations across Europe.
A condition for greater re-use of software of the public sector is that software is available as open source. To encourage the sharing of software, the feasibility of creating a common software pool is considered. This would be a service combining a European knowledge centre and best practice. The legal, functional and technical constraints are evaluated within the present Study.
OSS Notion
Open source software is software where the author (the "licensor") gives some fundamental freedoms to the user (the "licensee"), inside a license agreement:
The freedom to study how the programme works, and the freedom to adapt the code according specific needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this;
The freedom to improve the programme (enlarge, add functions);
The freedom to run the programme, for any purpose and on any number of machines;
The freedom to redistribute copies to other users.
What software, and why "Open source"?
Examples of open source software (OSS) are well known [The Linux operating system (or more exactly, the Linux kernel of the "GNU/Linux operating system") is the most famous OSS by far but is only the flagship of a numerous army of more or less illustrious representatives.], but the aim of the study is not to focus on these "stars". The object of the study is the specialised software produced by the public authorities across Europe, to respond to the administration or more generally to eGovernment needs: administration of roads, hospitals and public health, education, tax payment and recovery, justice, territory management [This is a selection of best practice presented at the eGovernment Conference (Brussels, 29 November 2001)].
So why "Open source" then? Because the software produced by or for administrations are usually not "industry packages" that can be used "as is" by other users. In particular, Europe is a territory of diversity (languages, regulations, cultures etc.), and a software developed in France for example, will not be usable as is in UK or in Sweden: the French administration's remit is to respond to the needs of its own citizens and not to make business with a generic product that can be sold "out-of-shelf" across the world. As a consequence, the reuse of such software is depending on the revision and the adaptation of its source code.
From these two prerequisites, the supposed absence of commercial purpose regarding license fees and the necessity to deliver the software with his code in order to adapt it to local realities prior to implement and redistribute it, the idea to adopt the "Open source Model" comes naturally.
The study purpose is therefore not of the advantages or disadvantages of open source and proprietary software. It is not to recommend any operating system or application, as the software developed for administrations run on multiple platforms (MS/ Windows, proprietary Unix, Linux etc.). It is not to take position in the commercial or sometimes ideological conflict between the advocates of free software distribution and the advocates of reinforcing intellectual and industrial property on software.
It is just to examine the pre-requisites and conditions (functional, legal, technical) of a pan-European pooling service.
The Ideas behind pooling
The ideas behind pooling software belong to three groups: Economy, Quality, Philosophy.
Economy
When acquiring existing software for new applications (licensee point of view and interest): obtaining the best value for citizen's money by reusing and adapting best practice software done by other administrations.
Reducing costs related to maintenance (licensor point of view and interest): existing applications are costly and difficult to maintain and to develop according to new standards. "Giving" their software as open source to a developers community may perhaps provide maintenance and new versions for free...
Sharing new software developments when no solution exists (common point of view): rather than to develop nearly identical solutions separately, why not adopt the open source development model to share the cost between a broader (trans-border) development team?
Quality
The sharing objective is not necessarily to spend less but to obtain a higher quality for the same amount of money:
Speed up innovation by using funds to develop really new applications and not to re-invent parts that have been already developed by others.
Allow countries to benefit from the advance of other countries: comparative studies showed "leading countries" having made significant advances in one or several specific domains.
Philosophy
Promote collaboration between European administrations;
Optimise the cooperation with the private sector, by concentrating investment on really innovative sectors and by promoting new support services;
I just love the quote that ol' billG said.... here it is.
"The so-called (Free Software Foundation)... says that these other countries other than the US should devote R&D dollars in the so-called open approach, that means you can never commercialise that software," said Gates.
Well, umm, no shit BillG. As a government, would you spend your miney on a company in another country for proprietary software for internal matters, or put the money in developing better GPL/FSF type of software (where there is already base). So yes, the GPL keeps money (and code) out of your pocket.
By the way billy, nice job on the DeToqueville (whatever) essay. You didnt pay much for it, did you?
2. Is anyone worried about this tendency within the EU towards standardization and centralization? I mean, the French definitely want things back as they were in 1680, or thereabouts, with France in control of the continent. Does anyone think it's time for Europe to acquire a Bureau of Sabotage?
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! Schmettern die hellen Fanfaren.
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! Jugend kennt keine Gefahren.
Slashdot, du wirst leuchtend stehn,
mögen wir auch untergehn.
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! Schmettern die hellen Fanfaren.
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! Jugend kennt keine Gefahren.
Ist das Ziel auch noch so hoch,
Jugend zwingt es, doch!
Unsre Linux es brechen uns voran..
In die Zukunft ziehen wir Mann für Mann.
Wir moderieren für Michael durch Nacht und durch not
Mit der betriebssystem für Freiheit und Brot.
Unsre Linux es brechen uns voran.
Unsre Linux ist die neue Zeit.
Und Linux führt uns in die ewigkeit!
Ja, Linux ist mehr als der Tod!
Jugend! Jugend! Wir sind die Zukunft Arschspielwaren.
Jugend! Jugend! Träger der kommenden Taten.
Ja, durch unsre Fäuste fällt,
wer sich uns entgegenstellt.
Jugend! Jugend! Wir sind die Zukunft Arschspielwaren.
Jugend! Jugend! Träger der kommenden Taten.
Führer, wir gehören dir,
wir kameraden dir!
Unsre Linux es brechen uns voran.
In die Zukunft ziehen wir Mann für Mann.
Wir moderieren für Michael durch Nacht und durch not
Mit der betriebssystem der Jugend für Freiheit und Brot.
Unsre Linux es brechen uns voran.
Unsre Linux ist die neue Zeit.
Und Linux führt uns in die ewigkeit!
Ja, Linux ist mehr als der Tod!
Open Source Software in the Public Sector is better than open sores in the private sector.
-1, Offtopic !
:)
What about poetry and metaphor ?
Now stop pretending to be insensitive geeks and mod parent up.
Note to parent poster:
in the future, to add some geek appeal, add a fake "-- Larry Wall in <1234567890@wall.org>" signature. Anyway, he said so many things you might even get it right.
-- don't discount flying pigs until you have good air defense
I sometimes think you Americans deserve a company like Microsoft: You complain long and loud how monopolistic, evil etc they are, but the minute someone outside the US actually does something about it, then that someone is immediately either communist (the EU in general), fascist (anything to do with Germany) or incompetent (usually some comment on France). This says more about stereotypes in American consciousness than anything else.
The EU is definitely not paradise, but they have a fairly good record of not blowing too much money on things which the tax payers have to foot, and OSS makes a lot of sense for me as a tax payer(cost), me as a citizen(the source code) and me as a programmer(the development stays here in Europe and not in Redmond).
The person who asked which country will pay for this: They will obviously have to work some agreement out on sharing of costs, but I see that being a lot easier to get through the various parliments than explaining that our tax money goes to a company in Washington State.
First off
there is a LOT of bespoke software running in UK government departments, and a lot of it was developed by third parties. Consultancies involved in this work have generally retained the IP to the work and in many cases have reused code, templates, and skills elsewhere for profit.
Nothing wrong with this in principle. The government doesn't really want to be in the software development business so it should be keen for others to reuse work as widely as possible. The larger the pool of users of a piece of code the more likely the govt will get some benefit back. The downside has been that not only does the govt pay through the nose for the initial development, they also pay a premium for future upgrades because they are now a captive user.
Avoiding this pain far outweighs the possible profit that could be made from retaining IP and selling to the highest bidder. (I've not seen many success stories coming out of Qinetiq which I believe is the UK agency responsible for commercialising apps that the govt owns. Correct me if I'm wrong on this one!)
Second off
The UK civil service is a passionate defender of the UK national interest. Trouble is that they often narrow the definition down to the interest of UK companies and do things that penalise UK citizens. There is a possibility that someone unaccountable will make an decision that using common apps across Europe will disadvantage UK software developers who will have to compete for govt business with equally skilled Europeans. It is also possible that someone will decide that the UK should be closely tied to US interests and that Microsoft is the only platform to work with.
The same debate has been heard many times on a wide range of issues such as banking law, European air traffic control, and even common weapons across the armies.
THE GOOD NEWS is that Open Source has the potential to be a different debate. The first government to develop or mandate sharable code has the best chance of establishing a standard for whatever app it is and therefore will avoid some later redevelopment costs. By opening the source code to scrutiny they also get the chance to check that the code does what they want it to do and nothing more. Less chance of hidden back doors, spyware etc.
And finally, it seems to me the big question is the ease or difficulty of identifying components which are truly sharable. Has anyone got any comparisons with major multi nationals that have tried to do this across their divisions?
Link
"Don't forget, it just so happens that all of those countries have nothing to lose and everything to gain by simply copying American drug patents. Third World countries, who are often run by tyrants and thieves, have nothing now nor on the visible horizon. Some countries who aren't considered Third World but are bankrupt and cheap will embrace open source pharmaceuticals (and open source computer systems). Others will embrace this kind of theft against 'The Great Satan' out of spite. Unfortunately an 'eye-for-an-eye' reaction policy (they steal our stuff; we steal theirs) doesn't work for the West because the countries that take from the West don't have anything worth taking."
Promis?
They make Ferrari's, Alfa Romeo's, Ducati's,...
Ceci n'est pas un sig
The findings of the "Pooling Open Source Software" study are available from the IDA website at http://europa.eu.int/ispo/ida.
Italian budgets are not the EU - The EU has a absolutely tiny, miniscule budget of 75 billion dollars which is 1% of gnp - compared with, say, the UK's 35% (and about 500 billion dollars)
... sheesh, the right of centre rules in UK, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy - I am sure I have forgotten a few.
As for left of centre
Facts, please.
It is great that this kind of initiative is being brought through even it is only words. It shows people who would like to change that they won't be alone if they do. Compare this to the Tony Blair/Bill Gates love in that occurs here one a year.
people complaining about other people's stereotypes should be more careful about throwing around their own.
I do agree with the point you make though.
Roland
Common sense once told people that putting butter on a burn would prevent scarring, but it turned out that when the evidence was in that ice is better. Just like the evidence says that "common sense" is wrong here.
It would be nice to have a real HOW-TO that was not a joke. I am sure people have written these up. I would start at the *successful* open source sites: *.apache.org, mozilla.org and mozdev.org, openoffice.org, kde.org, gnome.org, about 10 others, and maybe a "top-ten best run" projects list on SF if there are even ten...