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Red Hat Opens Lobbying Office Near DC
wiredog writes "From Government Computer News comes this story about Red Hat's new lobbying office near Washington DC, and mentions that RHEL 4 will have Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 certification."
In Foggy Bottom, so that we could call them Fog Hat.
Adopt pre-emptive strike doctrine.
Now Red Hat can play DC like the big boys!
Bob Young: Thanks for meeting me for lunch, Congressman.
Congressman: My pleasure.
Bob Young: [passing envelope under table] Have you thought about the silly bills the proprietary software people want passed?
Congressman: [counting cash] Yes, and frankly Mr. Young, I think Open Sauce is the only way to go!
Bob Young: Source. Open Source.
Congressman: Gotcha.
Trolling is a art,
Lobbiny is bad! Corrupt corruption! Evil money is influicing politics.
This is wrong. Where is the department of justice? Lobbying is not even taintamount to bribery, it is bribery!
What? Ohh... sorry.. thought this was an article about Microsoft, SCO, or Sun... my bad.
Go RedHat!
While Microsoft will have nothing of the sort, unless they've lied through their teeth, yet the US Government still will used hundreds of thousands of instances of Windows on PC's throughout countless bureaus.
RedHat will lobby, "Look, we have a totally transparent operating sytem, if it is in any way compromised it will likely be fixed in less than 24 hours and we can work with you to handle logistical details of patching all necessary computers. In the long run we're cheaper, reliable and immediately accountable." To which, a government all to used to chutzpah and hubris over the past few years will reply, "We don't like transparency, haven't you learned anything by now? Clearly our Great Benefactor in Redmond is a better patron and we totally believe him when he tells us that insurgents are behind exploiting security holes."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
a company is a company
no matter what they make
no matter what they sell
no matter who runs it
no matter who works for it
no matter how exceptional they may seem or may be
business is still business,
they always turn out the same way in the end, always.
I really can't think of any bad that can come from this. Hopefully it will improve the visibility of Linux for people who make decisions. In certain cases, people might not even know that linux is an option. Hopefully this new division can help fix that.
The article does make a good point with the Exchange servers though. It's been mentioned here before..., but Linux does need some better connectivity with Exchange to help sell some of the people who already have large systems already set up be more comfortable with the idea of Linux.
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
Money brings power, and the American people always lose in the process.
Shouldn't the OSDL have an office so that IBM, Redhat and all the others can lobby together instead of separately?
Is there even an OSDL lobby?
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Sorry, I don't like Linux companies trying to get special favors from the government any more than I like Microsoft doing it. Now you might argue that Linux, being the underdog, deserves to try to balance things in Washington. Using that argument, it would be okay for a poor kid to shoplift because he needs it. Doesn't make it right.
on the one hand...i like the fact that there is a company there that can counter microsoft's lobby.
but on the otherside...i firmly believe that this is what is so horribly wrong with our government.
lobbying by corporations seems to have made lawmakers more responsible to the lobbyist rather than the constituent
Is it 5:30 yet?
If they hope to out-lobby MSFT, they'd have better luck putting their money into a toilet and pushing the flush handle. I hope they have a legitimate strategy to justify this move.
I find the comment about RHEL 4 will be released being evaluated at Common Criteria EAL 4 interesting, considering RHEL is not listed as a product in under evaluation yet (http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/in_evaluation.html )! That should take about six months mimimally, so when are we looking at RHEL 4 being released?
Tux loves Jesus too! Kidding...kidding.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
For example, consider the tale of the Windows 2000 EAL4 evaluation.
There's lots of Linux in government, but it's mainly on the server side. Or with agencies that don't want to leave a paper trail of what they've bought 9and from whom) and who consider protecting their data to be the highest priority.
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With M$ tethered to the viciously unpopular offshoring issue, this move just makes sense; "How can you justify giving taxpayer dollars to companies that are hell-bent on shipping your constituent's jobs overseas?". They should have been asking this question a _long_ time ago.
...
Seriously though, I thought we could beat them?
I'm sure that even with a lobbying office in DC, that Redmond will launch a shock-and-awe campaign that will make the RedHat guys run home screaming to mommy when their overcome by a republican guard of WMDs (Windows Misinformation Drones).
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Is when RHEL 4 comes out, it doesn't say when the CC EAL 4 cert will happen.
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You know, I suspect you are a troll, but I'm not getting it. Maybe I'm just stupid, but really, what are you taking a stab at?
Okay, maybe I see your point about the memory managemenet, assuming that your one line comment refers to Linux's tendency to overcommit on memory. But are you really saying that?
As a troll, your composition is muddled, and inconsistent. If this is in fact a parody the current America administration, could you give us some additional hints? Some context? A picture of Bush with the One Ring?
Something? Anything?
Sorry, I don't like Linux companies trying to get special favors from the government
Special favors? That's a whole other thing. Establishing a lobbying office is just one step towards getting seen and heard (as opposed to remaining unnoticed).
For a Linux company to obtain special favors would require more than an office.
only in the open and work for free?
Sorry.
AS/400s are not "big old Unix boxes." AS/400s are mid-range, and OS/400 is not even close to being UNIX-derived.
I hate to point this out, but historically when a company reaches this level they are more likely to be assimiated into the status quo than to change it.
That "fact" sounds made up. One could argue that most companies are part of the "status quo" before needing to lobby, too. But I made that up, as well :)
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
Require public Internet disclosure of every meeting between an elected official and a lobbyist.
Think of it as CVS for Lobbyists.
Check in. Check out.
Is that enough hint?
The NSA is very fond of Linux.
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well, I don't to DAA/C&A stuff for a living, but I picked up the cert in grad school getting a Comp Sci MS in InfoSec...anyway
You're mostly right....The Windows 2000 EAL4 certification is totally worthless, because they used a CAPP (Controlled Access Protection Profile) for the evaluation process, meaning that it's quite secure in totally non-hostile environment. This is about as far from what a typical server hooked up to the internet (running actual Services) will encounter as possible, so it's BS.
However, EAL4 is really the highest any commercial system can get. It becomes astronomically expensive and complicated to mathematically prove non-interference between users/composite systems as you go higher in EALs, and I think 4 is the highest that's ever been granted, IIRC.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Remember that although they do not provide free binary downloads of their OSes almost everything they aquire thru their profits from other companies they open source.
Also they are providing proper enginerring Q&A analysis to the source code of Linux and is providing a aspect that previously was thought to be lacking in OSS software. (who would pay to do the boring code review?)
So far Redhat has been mostly good for Linux and Linux has been mostly good for them.
I use Debian though.
Just like this giant pile of burning 5hit
Lobbying is not even taintamount to bribery, it is bribery!
I like it:
taintamount - adj. - quality of a bad thing being remarkably similar to something worse
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I can see it now...the msft states vs the redhat states...umm maybe not :-)
I guess their lobbying office in Fairbanks wasn't working out.
the as/400 OS is not *nix. it's an original OS made especially for the as/400
Oh please...Im a lobbyist too - in the Tech industry to boot. If this is how you lobby then your a moron.
Good lobbyists see themselves as teachers, educating staffers to possible issues waaay ahead of any time they actually need a favor. When they do need a favor - they lay out both sides carefully and quickly. Getting people drunk is only a handfull of bad lobbyists. You probably don't lobby at all.
BTW- this office doesn't appear to be a full fledged lobbying shop, but rather a point person to contact the government on federal procurement. Its more government sales than government policy. Thats not to say that policies policing federal acquistion won't be done here - I have a hard time believing that the office will be talking to Congressmen regarding the latest stock options bill.
In Foggy Bottom, so that we could call them Fog Hat.
I think maybe you are confusing that with a competing product called FogHORN.
FogHORN == vaporous with lots of noise.
"Hi, I'm Paul Smith. I have a new linux distribution called 'White Teeth Linux' I'd like to sell you today."
The article could perhaps been better summarized like "mistaken identity of scribbler debunks 'science' of graphology."
Microsoft says. "If you do not stop Open Source software you will loose thousands of high paying jobs in you state."
Micorosoft only says things like that because they use Word's grammar checker to write their speeches.
Search for "Unisys ES7000 Server Running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4".
Not only is the certification useless, you have to be running it on a specific server.
It is getting compared against "multiple domain solutions".
If you new anything about these types of certifications, you'd know that software is tied with hardware as a certified package.
We may not care for that, but that's the way these things go.
What's my Karma Mr. Burns? "Excellent"
... does the Lobby Office have a lobby?
Look, i like a good microsoft bashing, just as most of my arm was left here by the kidneys. An alphabet is an echo in here! Someday mother will die and i'll get the money.
Charles robert darwin was an american scientist. He recorded scientific studies in unpublished note books. The anus is the department of justice. Because everybody is not even taintamount to bribery, it is bribery!
Does it really matter? Anyhow, let's chat about something else... The sun is a light, portable screen usually circular and supported on a windows machine, then microsoft will be open source. The older you get, the more you like to tell you, but i must desist!
I think you may have lost the plot.
It's a federal sales office --it's not for lobbying. They are trying to increase the use of Red Hat in agencies of the federal government. Way to go, slashdot readers; you've displayed the analytical skills you're so well-known for.
Then they changed their business model. A full year of back and forth with the RH govt sales folks gartnered only a little bit of a discount. It was very depressing when we were buying so much of their stuff and will be using so little of their "enterprise" resources.
Last year, the agency shelled out big bucks to get the needed ES licenses. This year, we have to shell it out all over again, thanks to their very MS-like business model.
But this year, our budget went down and IT spending has been slashed 15 percent and about 20 percent or more of our contract staff will go away.
The IT folks in the field started to revolt last year. This year, facing a reduced budget, IT management in the field is also starting to revolt and quietly standing Debian and Fedora systems.
It's just a matter of time before RH loses our business. Gotta wonder where else this is happening in the Federal sector.
Their only hope is on the security front. But recent experience with their ultra-expensive Satellite server and the related training left a lot to be desired.
I always see people complaining about Washington and talking like "that's just the way it is" and fail to see that "we the people" are the ones supporting it in the end.
The problem isn't with the Reps or the Dems, it is with both. I believe they are both selling out on regular people and that's why I voted for Michael Badnarik and the Libertarian Party.
- no sig here
He looks like an evil version of Sean Connery's Bond.
Twin good vs evil is the only cliche that Bond movies haven't used.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.