Should Obama Give Stimulus To Open Source?

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Bill Snyder posits a deeper relationship between government and open source than was proposed in last week's open letter to Obama calling for broader open source adoption: economic stimulus. Since software vendors urged the president to go open source last week, security companies 'have raised scary points about vulnerabilities in open source,' suggesting they could step in to help secure an open source switch. Rather than opt for this kind of security through obscurity, Snyder argues in favor of earmarking funds for open source development to instead ensure security through transparency. 'Once the government expands its use and support of open source, venture money — which is drying up in the current recession — would again start flowing to those small companies, allowing them to hire or rehire some of the tens of thousands of unemployed IT workers,' he argues."

Comments

Only in common sense ways

[drinkypoo]

And not with the expenditure of money, at least not through handouts. I have not read and will not RTFA because I can tell you exactly what this piece is inspired by: jealousy. I want my piece of the handout too!

The government should simply mandate the use of open standards, not to include anything invented or bastardized by Microsoft. (That is a redundant statement but it simply must be made.)