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Open Source in Politics?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-gnu-platform dept.

tetraminoe asks: "Spread Firefox has a story about a student at the University of Florida running for student government promising to promote open source on campus. His platform includes expanding F/OSS on campus, using open file formats, etc. Is this the first time 'free culture' has become an electoral issue? Has anyone else made open source an issue at their university?"

6 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. It's a non-issue by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The real issues are tuition, professor quality, library resources, and campus safety (wide net encompassing dorm safety to the campus rentacops). Open Source is just a buzzword that gets play with a very narrow circle of jerks that think they know what's best.

    Besides, Open Source ought to be about freedom, which would mean that it should be as far away from politics as possible to ensure that everyone has the Freedom to choose whatever software they liked. Now, if the "IT director" in the computer labs wants to screw everyone over by installing a minority OS on all the campus computer lab PCs, that's an IT decision. It ought not be handled at the student government level.

    1. Re:It's a non-issue by oirtemed · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I beg to differ. Open source is a real issue. My school spends millions of dollars on MS contracts and has to upgrade their contracted Dell computers all the time just to keep pace. While Windows and other prop programs are needed, there is no reason that many of the workstations couldn't be switched over to linux. We have workstations dedicated solely to catalog lookups for the library. I would love to see the MS tax be eliminated there, all it needs is a web browser to run and MS support isn't needed on those machines. I would also sleep better at night knowing my personal information wasn't kept, most likely, on windows machines.

      I use openoffice and have never ONCE had a problem moving a document between here and the Word2000/MS machines at school. This tells me that there could be room for an alternative, especially when computer seats are so expensive. You could take dated hardware and convert them to word processing/web browsing stations for cheap.

      I don't know why I'm wasting my time with you, you are an obvious troll. Academic institutions are the places where freedom SHOULD be pushed. Open document standards should be the norm. This doesn't mean no MS machines at all. But there is room for OSS there. It's only a non-issue for those who can't wrap their heads around concepts like freedom, cost savings and portability. And freedom is a political issue. I suggest you take a class and learn what politics really are.

    2. Re:It's a non-issue by queenb**ch · · Score: 3, Insightful

      First off, your university doesn't spend squat on Microsoft products. Seriously, Microsoft gives them to us. I should know, since I'm in IT for a university.

      You know what a per seat license for Microsoft Office Pro costs at the educational rate? $6.00 and no, that's not a typo. It's 6 bucks, which is usually cheaper than my lunch on campus. Now that's if I want the disks. If I just want a license, it isn't even a whole $1. Retail for the same product is $450 per seat.

      You know how much the license is for Windows XP? Well, there is no "per seat" charge. We pay a few hundred bucks a year for the right to install it on as many University owned machines as we can. Retail for it is nearly $200 per seat.

      All of the other Microsoft products are priced similarly for education. The whole reason being that if they are cheap enough, we will use them and crank you out already assimilated. Welcome to the collective.

      If you want to whinge about Microsoft's TCO to a Universtiy, whinge where it will do some good. Complain about the additional costs of anti-virus "solution", the anti-spyware "solution", the patch management "solution", the anti-spam "solution" etc. Since *none* of these products come from Microsoft, we pay out the a$$ with your tuition dollars to cover them. That's what you ought to be mad about!

      Frankly, even at an initially higher purchase price, we'd be better off if everyone had a Mac. Still runs most of the proprietary software, runs Office for Mac, and doesn't need any of the above to remain in good working order 99+% of the time.

      2 cents,

      Queen B

      --
      HDGary secures my bank :/
  2. You Gotta Be Kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You think a kid running for STUDENT government at a college really means something larger because of his Open Source platform?

    I mean, really, please get a grip here. Most student governments are jokes anyways, people will run on any wacky platform to get a few meager votes from the student population.

    If this was an REAL election, you might have a story. But this is like reporting on a Model UN or Boy Scout meeting. In other words, it's completely meaningless.

  3. Zero Power by Secret+Rabbit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Considering that a student has zero power to dictate the technologies on campus, I'd say that this is nothing but an attempt to get the votes of the Comp. Sci. students.

    Here's how the converstaion might go:

    Student: We should only use open tech.

    Administration: But M$ promised us ...

    Student: But, there tech. is broken; it doesn't work as advertised.

    Administration: Well, who are we going to believe. You a scruffy Arts student or the knowledgeble M$ salesman that we relate to?

    Student: But...

    Administration: Sit down!

  4. Remember that student government has no power by Captain+Tripps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They can lobby the state government over tuition, which might do some good, although the higher-ups are already doing that. They have less influence then the faculty senate, so it's unlikely they can do anything about professor quality. Libraries and campus safety are probably reasonable things to focus on, but in most cases, there's only so much student government can do, for good or ill. At my school (we're talking 2000-2004) the Black Caucus alone was more politically powerful than the undergraduate senate. Plus, this guy isn't running for president, just a regular senate slot.

    So I think increasing Linux and open source adoption is a totally reasonable goal. There's probably a contingent of the IT department who are in favor of it already, and having the support of student government makes it that much easier to justify their plans. Sure, if I was the IT director, I wouldn't want students telling me what OS to run on the web server, say. But for the computer labs, why not? Reserve some machines for Linux, install Open Office and Firefox on the Windows ones, avoid IE-specific web content on University sites, etc. Sounds like a practical plan to me.

    And yes, I know there's more to Baker's platform than this, I'm just addressing the part of it that the parent brought into question.