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Open Source in Government

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the keep-pushing-further dept.

A reader writes: "There is a feature running on NF about a conference this October. More information can be found on the conference website." It's worth pointing that despite the fact that the conference is two days long, the organizers have asked for material submissions to be included in the conference handbook. So, if you've got some materials/thoughts, start polishing them up.

2 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Sha, I wish by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 2, Troll
    Back in 1998, when Linux was cool, I started a project to convert our lab to Linux servers, desktops, embedded, etc. The project itself was still exploratory, just seeing what this baby could do, you know. Well, we had our yearly audit (as a federal grant-getting institution we need to have accounting/insurance/safety/security audits, etc). When I showed the GAO guy my Linux test boxes he nearly blew a gasket and told me to yank those out of there ASAP.

    These were his claims (before you mod me down, remember that I disagree with his assessment, I'm just the messenger here)

    • He said they'd found massive security issues with Linux
    • He said the reliability wasn't quite high enough for those mission critical items we performed
    • He said their was nobody to call when it broke
    • He said that the haphazardly "open" way it had been developed practically guaranteed the existence of bugs
    • He also said that the licensing issues prevented our lab from putting the results of our experiments in the public domain

    So anyway, I'm glad the gov't is taking a second look. Hopefully Linux has improved since then.

  2. Where are the support opensource vendors? by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Troll

    Just wondering, Typical questions.

    1. If you want to use an opensource product, where do you learn about it? I know about oracle and mysql, but who do I goto for mysql paid support?

    2. What about total solutions, other than RedHat or VA Software, are there other vedors? Or do I just goto IBM and Say "Linux"?

    3. Are any opensource vendors bidding on government contracts?

    4. Do the opensource vendors support 24/7 priority support? What about public safety? (fire/police/ambulance/etc.)

    I deal with public safety, and they want a live person, with escalation if something is service impacting. They want service level agreements.

    If I contact a large vendor, they have all those answers, they even seek my business. I have not seen much opensource support or opensource products besides apache and support utiltiies. I have not *seen* many adverts, people offering demos, people offering to fill a niche market, where are the opensource companies people need to turn too?