Debate On Public Procurement of Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "A debate over at TechCentralStation has Jim DeLong arguing against favoring open source in government procurement contracts, and Julian Sanchez arguing for it." Sanchez' piece is especially well argued; I especially like his phrasing here: "it's not clear precisely what a 'hands off' policy means in a context where government is necessarily acting as a player in the market."

Comments

James V. DeLong is, of course, uninformed.

[Alethes]

Under the GPL, the licensee agrees not to sell or otherwise limit the reproduction of the software (though one is allowed to charge for costs of distribution, warranties, and services, as noted above in the discussion of Red Hat).

If he had just bothered to read this,he might have had a little crediblity. Instead, he chose to believe Microsoft FUD.