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UK Government Reports Linux is 'Viable'
CProgrammer98 writes "The Beeb is reporting that The UK Office of Government Commerce has published their final results following trials on the use of OSS and especially Linux and they conclude that Linux is a viable option for government use. From their summary: 'The report shows that Open Source software is rapidly maturing, offers significant potential benefits to government and should be actively considered alongside proprietary alternatives. It concludes that decisions should be based on a holistic assessment of future needs, taking into account total cost of ownership, with proper consideration of both proprietary and open source solutions.'"
Well it is NOT free. When SCO finally wins in court, they will have the privilege to pay $799.00(USD) per install/per year.
When governments contract or pay for prepackaged software, they are using the pool of everyone's taxes to buy it.
But in this case the method of exchange is not tied to the monetary system. So this shifts the tax burden solely on to the producers of the code. Everyone in the society will benefit by default, even if they are not computer users and do not and will never understand what OSS is or how to contribute to it. Because a) governments are different operational entities than individuals and b) the individual originators' labor is not being compensated but will be relied upon, this gives me a bad feeling.
I firmly believe in the truth of the principle of TANSTAAFL - so let's hope some useful contributions emanate back into the broader pool from these governments adopting OSS, before it all turns to disaster.
The US Government uses a lot of open source software. But they also use a lot of Closed source software.
Who the hell do you think paid for all those (evil) nuke simulating supercomputers? Satan? France?
No with tax money, that's what paid for it.
Who developed the SELinux? The KGB, or NSA?
With tax money again...
Who gives a crap what they use anyways, anything they use for beuacratic BS they'll f-up anyways.