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White House Website Switches To Open Source
Falc0n writes "WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software. Dries Buytaert reflected on this, adding: 'this is a clear sign that governments realize that Open Source does not pose additional risks compared to proprietary software, and furthermore, that by moving away from proprietary software, they are not being locked into a particular technology, and that they can benefit from the innovation that is the result of thousands of developers collaborating on Drupal.'"
Both of those things can be accomplished on your own code too, so thats not really a reason. Maybe you / your coders don't have to do as much work, but then it will limit you to that CMS's features, limitations and ways to do things.
Now they're locked in to PHP.
Error: password can't contain reverse spelling of ancient Chinese emperor
OK, guys, now everyone should shut up about anything the government does, because it went open-source, right?
*crickets*
Does the Obama administration really think they can buy us off that easily? It's a significant step forward, but I don't think we should bother to praise them in any way.
My first reaction to seeing this article was how long it will take for Fox News and friends to declare open source software as socialist and how comrade Obama has taken jobs away from hard working capitalist programmers. It's really not a stretch given their track record.
Yet, even as the White House becomes more efficient and the website costs less to build and operate, this is one more step towards a post-scarcity future that the White House is not otherwise directly engaging, like by promoting a "basic income" for all regardless of whether someone "works":
"Why limited demand means joblessness"
http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/2009/10/03/why-limited-demand-means-joblessness/
"Summary: Mainstream economics assumes demand for almost anything is infinite. Thus, the theory goes, when human workers get replaced by robots, or better design means less human labor is needed, then there will soon be new jobs making new things; the only issue might be retraining. But, if demand is limited (because the best things in life are free or cheap, and everything you own also owns you), then when people get laid off, the jobs are gone for good, because there is nothing more that anybody wants then is already produced. And people having more time outside of compulsory work would be a good thing, if we more evenly shared the wealth from automation and better design, but we don't -- yet."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Everyone knows he uses Lynx.
Is that what we're calling RushBots these days?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Seriously, when the government starts talking about hosting, they can just throw hardware at it. When you are able to print money, the capital costs of anything are pretty much irrelevant.
This is my sig.
I doubt many dittos heads have the skills to be malicious hackers.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace