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."

Comments

I was hoping they'd be in DC

[Anonymous Coward]

In Foggy Bottom, so that we could call them Fog Hat.

Suggestion

[wombatmobile]

Adopt pre-emptive strike doctrine.

Woo hoo!

[grub]

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.

Re:Woo hoo!

[Odin's Raven]

You gotta love the fact that they seemed to have digitally enhanced the whiteness of his teeth.

It's okay - I'm sure they used The Gimp to do it. :-)

Re:Woo hoo!

[discordja]

I've lived and worked in DC for a while now (for a non prof lobbying group to boot) and can tell you it's a much different beast than it's made out to be...tho still a beast.

Most congressmen don't interact with the lobby groups directly. An office will have gobs of LAs (Legistlative Assistants) and they will in turn do most of the contacting and oft times a lot of the deal brokering on some issues.

Most lobbying is nothing more than smart manouvering. You get their staffers drunk, pump em for information, then go to their constituents and whip em into a frenzy when you find the dirt.

Lobbying..

[danheskett]

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!

Welcome To The Big League

[ackthpt]

RHEL 4 will have Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 certification.

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."

It's a nice start

[chris09876]

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.

this leaves me perplexed

[m2bord]

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

I sure hope...

[GillBates0]

Redhat highlights Linux's faith-based approaches to task scheduling and memory management.

Tux loves Jesus too! Kidding...kidding.

Most Common Criteria evaluations are worthless

[Wesley Felter]

For example, consider the tale of the Windows 2000 EAL4 evaluation.

Re:Most Common Criteria evaluations are worthless

[Isao]

CC Evaluations are widely misunderstood, but are actually relevent and valuable if you know how to use them (which it seems most don't).

The key to the CC is the Security Target or Protection Profile. The EAL number indicates how rigorously the claims in these documents have been verified. (The article linked covers this.) If the claims in an ST or PP are important to you, higher EAL's provide more assurance that what is claimed is in fact true. If you require something that isn't in the ST or PP, then even an EAL7 means nothing to you.

It seems that most people think of the EAL as a simple "security score," which isn't the case.

I work for a DoD contractor

[wiredog]

Getting ready to install RHEL3 on my box, getting a workstation in next week which we will install RHEL3 on, and the Zaurus should be in on Tuesday.

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.

Re:Still Not Right

[LWATCDR]

Depends on what those special "favors" are. Sometimes it is as simple as educating the official. Think of it this way. Microsoft says. "If you do not stop Open Source software you will loose thousands of high paying jobs in you state."
Red Hat says. "If you should demand open and documented file formats so that your data can not be held hostage." Imagine if Microsoft went out of business like Eastern Airlines, or American Motor Corp, or "former large employer from that state goes here". Think of all those documents that could be lost be cause you can not read them on you new software!"