U.S. Fed Goes Brand Neutral

Rollie Hawk writes "The White House and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent out notice this week that government purchases, including in IT, need to be open to many brand names. 'We are concerned the use of brand name specifications in agency solicitations may have increased significantly in recent years, particularly for information technology procurements,' according to the OMB. AMD is certainly happy with this news, having long complained of the unholy marriage between the Fed and Intel. Perhaps this will even open the way for Linux and other open-source options being chosen over Microsoft and the like. If this works out, it will lead to a better fiscal situation on many fronts. The increased competition will lower the cost to taxpayers (though the money will still get spent somewhere) and the wider spread of contracts will help competitors to chip away at the dominance of Microsoft and Intel."

Comments

This misses the point

[El Cubano]

Perhaps this will even open the way for Linux and other open-source options being chosen over Microsoft and the like.

The government buys what its contractors tell it to. Thus, the only open source will get into the government is when the IBM's, EDS's and Oracle's of the world start pushing open source (or at least partial open source) solutions to the government. While there are many smart people in the government who like open source, they rarely make the spending decisions (and face it, MS and other proprietary vendors court the decision makers). The key is to raise awareness among the PHBs and to get the solution providers to push open source.

Re:From what I've read

[ackthpt]

Some government employees aren't the brightest when it comes to computing. I wonder what sort of problems having them learn to use linux would cause?

And some of them are the brightest people you may ever meet. Don't be such a bigot. I've had to interact with man federal agencies over the years and quite a few of them know exactly what they are doing. The problems often lie in the direction of contractors who come in and technically meet the letter of a contract, but in spirit leave something lacking, which allows overruns to happen.

I once had a very amusing talk with someone at the US Dept of Education. He knew what we needed to submit and what the issue I was raising meant, but try to get the contractor to understand it.

Vendors will "help" write the new specs :(

[davidwr]

Old spec:
Microsoft Word 2003

New spec:
Word processor which supports the following requirements:
{insert long list of specifications at least one of which is covered by a Microsoft patent}