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Canadian Federal Government Mulling Open Source?
An anonymous reader points out a CBC report discussing a request from the Canadian government for information about open source software and free proprietary software. Evan Leibovitch, an advocate for open source, says the government's interest was spurred by a desire to reduce expenditures during the recession.
"...Leibovitch said he hopes the request will lead to government policies that give 'a level playing field' to vendors of open-source software services, who provide technical and administrative support to companies that use open-source programs. He alleges these service providers currently face barriers when competing with proprietary software vendors in the government procurement process. ... When the government purchases software, it often assumes that it will have to pay for a licence and asks software vendors to bid for the contract, McOrmond said. Vendors of open source software services don't respond to that initial call for tender because they have no licences to sell. But then, the government might ask for a separate round of bids for providing support services for the software, which open-source vendors could provide."
It may not be PC, and I reckon I'll be labelled a troll, but the word on the streets is the Canadians use more common sense than us.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Most likely, it'll just end up with them getting better offers from Microsoft and other companies - but a policy of promoting open source as a preferred quality in software is still at least a good philosophy to promote.
There's likely still too much of a practical dependence on folks who will only be comfortable with the idea of using Windows to just do any major switch - but the change in policy to demand a more even playing field will likely reap great rewards, as it has with many other nations making similar decisions.
Ryan Fenton
If it's Debian-based: Ehbuntu
If it's RPM-based: Toque
Anybody want my mod points?
Canada is primarily a Windows shop, but there are many Solaris, BSD and Linux server machines all over the place. Desktop use is very limited, but there are some. The primary problem with desktop use is Active Directory and Exchange. Lately, MS Outlook works fine on Crossover and Active Directory is handled well by Samba Winbind, so the barriers are falling.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Open Source software was part of the Green Party's very thorough and thoughtful election campaign. Too bad most Canadians never bothered to read it.
I see it still features on their web site as a current issue. With a minority government in power and the threat of a coalition or vote of non-confidence always looming, it's hard to say how much pull the Greens really have, having failed yet again to win a seat in parliament.
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
I am only responding to your last statement. As a Canadian who has visited many areas of both the US and Europe, I can tell you that Americans are the only people who DON'T respect Canadians. You are AC, so I don't know what nationality you are, but if you are American, believe me, you guys are some of the LEAST respected people in the world.
Yes, I have some Karma to burn!
Rem,ember this is one country without a domestic car concern...the only such country in the entire so called G8! Canada? Give me a break!
I don't get it. What does Canada not having a 'domestic car concern' have to do with their adoption of Open Source?
Could you put this in a car analogy for me?
You are aware of something called the auto pact. Basically the deal is that we agreed to allow Canadian makers to be taken over in exchange for complete integration into the north american market. So our branch plants of automakers represent approximately double the number of employees, per capita of population in comparison to the US.
We didn't get the names, but we got the jobs. Canadians used their noggins for what was important to them. And the most popular segment in the late nineties was the Chrysler Mini-van, which was designed and built in Canada from day 1 until today, where it is now sold as a VW Touran.
As for being alone in the G8... Name me a British automobile brand that is still in British hands, and still in business. Show me a Russian car you can buy in North America (nope, no Lada's) Please attempt to find an affordable Italian Car in North America. Fiat doesn't exist here. Your choices are: Alfa, Lambo, Ferrari, ... If those count, then check out: T-Rex, http://www.auto123.com/en/car-reviews/new/2008-t-rex-1400r-road-test-video?printable=1&artid=91050
or zenn http://www.zenncars.com/
there are a half-dozen other boutique style manufacturers.
Further, there are many non G8 countries with automobile brands, such as Korea, Sweden, India, China, Brazil, etc... So what's your point?
P.S. Canada's Bombardier is:
#1 manufacturer of train wagons in the world, to the point where folks are considering anti-monopoly rules.
#3 manufacture of aircraft, after Boeing, and Airbus.
oh, and they started out in Snow mobiles, and are still big there.
So on the one hand, there are other G8 countries without meaningful presence in one of the largest auto markets in the world (North America), on the other hand, some G8 countries' manufacturers' are economically insignificant. On the third hand, the presence/absence of an auto brand says little about the overall economy... and many non G8 countries have auto brands. So It's hard to see how that could be a condition of entry into the club.
Let me start by observing that anyone who generalizes based upon nationality is falling into a trap. People are people; shaped by their environment, sure, but incredibly diverse in nature. I've met my share of people from all over the world. Some were asshats, some were kind and generous almost to a fault. Personally, I never noticed that any particular nation had a monopoly on one extreme or the other.
As to American attitudes towards Canadians? I can't speak to your personal experience. I can say that I grew up in northern Minnesota just 100 miles from the border. We used to have Canadians down for skiing trips all the time. When they came down, they were ready to party hard. The running joke was that only a Canuck could out drink a jackpine savage (our local version of a backwoods redneck, a community which I am still proud to consider myself a member). :)
Unfortunately, some Canadians gave the rest of you a bad name by being belligerent drunks. Should I have assumed that all Canadians were asshats because of that? Or would you rather that I just regard those individuals as jerks and not representative of Canadians as a whole?
To quote the punchline to a very old joke, "Can't we all just get along?!?" :)
Tell you what. In the words of Arlo Guthrie, let's start a movement. Instead of protesting war and stuff, we'll just aim at learning to respect and trust each other. I won't judge all Canadians by a small handful of drunks if you'll accept that not all Americans are rude jerks. Then all we have to do is find a Brit who isn't a soccer hooligan (should be pretty easy, actually) and we've got ourselves an honest to God English speaking love fest going. Add in a Quebecois or two, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, and a Mexican and we'll have the start of a North Atlantic love-in! Then we add a Brazilian and a Namibian and we've got the South Atlantic covered! W00t! Can you see how it could grow? :)
Hey, I can dream, can't I? :D