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Linux Journal On Linux's Adoption In U.S. Courts

Posted by simoniker on from the guilty-of-being-a-penguin dept.

Sam Hiser writes "Tom Adelstein writes in Linux Journal that, technically, one-third of the U.S. Government has moved to Linux: its Third Branch, the Judiciary. That's 30,000 users across 800 locations, comprising the nation's Federal court system. Given our information overload, it's easy to miss the most significant kernels of news."

5 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. One can only hope... by drooling-dog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...that the wide use of Linux in the court system will make judges just a little more skeptical of the legal antics that Microsoft will undoubtedly be throwing against it in the years ahead.

    1. Re:One can only hope... by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Oh, no, they DON'T have Word.

      I was just in the Federal Court Clerk's office here in San Francisco around the first of the month paying my restitution as I do every month.

      I happened to notice the clerk was keying a document in using WORDPERFECT - which STILL dominates the legal field. I even mentioned it to her, saying that too many legal WordPerfect macros exist to switch to Word. She laughed.

      --
      Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
    2. Re:One can only hope... by darkmeridian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      WordPerfect dominates the legal field partially because it counts footnotes and such in its word count feature. Court documents done with Word sometimes go over the limit and get bounced back from the courts summarily. This is bad. In fact, Judge Posner wrote an article warning against this troubling aspect of Microsoft Word.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  2. Nothing but good news by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think it is especially significant that Linux has been adopted by the Judicial branch which is both the most savvy branch (people hate Congress and the White House, but few hate the SCOTUS) and, constitutionally, the one given the most power over the other two. I look forward to an activist judge mandating that all branches must use Linux to adopt and maintain transparent government.

  3. Gov't adoption is the good news by TheLoneCabbage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It doesn't much matter what branch of the govt uses it. At the end of the day the Gov't controls around 1/4 of the nation GDP. It controls how and where that's spent.

    ALLOT of money flows out of the gov't and stirs allot of industry. Especially durring recessions, that have been a classic time for gov't over spending, since FDR, to restimulate the economy.

    If you want that money, you will run what ever software the gov't tells you too. Ideologies aside you have a buisness to run. To be compatible with the gov't agencies is essentials.

    And as that money spreads out, to subcontractors, and support industries the chain of compatibilty does as well.

    I worked for 2 years for a company that did court document back up. They declared what their standards were. If we wanted the contract we did as we were told. And we chose the servers that meant the absolute least friction between start and support.

    This is a much bigger deal than just public relations.

    --
    I would rather be ashes than dust!