Slashdot Mirror
Open Source in Government: Newport News, Va.
Sam Hiser writes "Open source in government is getting real. Tom Adelstein, in this penetrating interview with Andy Stein, the CIO of Newport News, Virginia, gets to the heart of why the opportunity to build collaborative software pulled the former chief IT architect of Capital One into the public sector. Police, fire and EMT early responders -- and the IT systems that support them - are under Sisyphean pressure to perform, while budgets are sagging. Something's gotta give, and it's going to be the aging software infrastructure in our towns and cities. Are Open Source platforms the only economically viable alternative? Maybe not, but collaboration will have to occur if we want to build the systems to save our lives."
Let the jokes begin.
AND PLEASE READ THIS:
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I tried to imagine exactly what this means but came up stone cold. It seems to be used in this sentence to mean something like "severe" rather than "repetitive", or "pointless", or "without end", or "in vain".
C'mon guys, let's pick adjectives that don't *completely* make readers lose their focus here.
If the US government start using Linux then Bush will have SCO arrested for being terrorists if they threaten him with a $699 bill!!!
:-)
Darl McBride in Camp X-Ray - I bet that would be a popular wallpaper
A spectre is haunting the world, the spectre of the Linux zealot.
What the Linux zealot is will appear evident to whoever has experienced
or came in contact with the discussions which daily rage the Web
disguised as news, e-mails, reference material, etc. The Linux zealot,
is nothing but an animal wandering unceasingly in virtual and true
reality (which moreover he treats in the same way) claiming to be an
authority on the Linux operating system, an out-and-out guarantor for
everyone's freedom, opposed to any safeguard of intellectual works (for
a Linux zealot, the expression "copyright" is tantamount to sin against
the Holy Spirit: there is no kind of expiation); in fact, he champions
software freedom as a fundamental point for world evolution.
But first and foremost, the Linux zealot is a deeply dangerous being as
he claims to be the guardian of truth, and sees with suspicion (when it
goes off well) or scorn (for the rest of cases, i.e. most of them) those
people who simply think differently from him.
But what's Linux? A Linux zealot will never give an authentic answer to
this kind of question. He won't, not because he doesn't want to (even if
this is the case), but because this question has been answered already,
somewhere else by someone else. Linux is nothing but an operating
system. The Linux zealot will claim that it is a different operating
system from all others. But this is not the case. Because an OS is an
OS, its main function is to manage the resources of a machine we will
call "computer" from now on, for comfort of description. By the term
"computer" we mean what is commonly meant by this expression, i. e. the
system of hardware resources which are fixed to a certain purpose, be it
home use, business use, or server management. Linux is an operating
system. Like Windows, MS-DOS, OS/2, etc. There is no difference, in this
sense, between Linux and other operating systems. Linux manages a
computer, no more, no less. So do MS-DOS, Windows and OS/2. What the
Linux zealot self-importantly and arrogantly highlights, is the fact
that Linux is a free operating system, i.e., it is made available free
of charge to the end user. This of course isn't true at all, but the
Linux Zealot believes it. Linux is freely distributable, not free of
charge. This means that the kernel and everything included in the
operating system's minimal requirements can be freely distributed, not
that they must be distributed free of charge. This is the first great
misapprehension of the Linux zealots, who find their claim challenged by
facts: if the essential parts which make the operating system, and some
additional software, are freely distributable, they should explain the
reason of the costs -- not prohibitive but certainly notable -- of the
most popular Linux distributions, Red Hat and SuSE foremost. And most of
all, they should explain the fact that companies like Red Hat are
regularly listed on the stock exchange, and Mr. Linux Torvalds enjoys a
rather high standard of living. These benefactors of mankind, these
software alternatives, these computer non-conformists (so much
non-conformist as to be terribly conformist in their non-conformism)
naturally justify the distributing companies' profits with excuses like
"but there's a printed manual", "but the bundled software is
qualitatively and numerically superior compared to the most popular
distribution". "but it is easier to install" and other unspeakable
nonsense. "On the other hand" they say "if someone wants Linux, they can
just as easily download it from the Internet". Sure. Download it from
the Internet. But how long must you stay connected, if you regularly pay
an Internet bill, to complete the download of an updated version of a
decent distribution of an operating system? So what? Is Linux free? No.
Linux is not free, same as nothing downloaded from the Internet is free,
unless you have access to
I don't understand?
How is it cheaper when it will cost them $699.00 per processor?
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"