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How Can I Contribute To Open Source?
rtobyr writes "I work for a state government agency. That means we can't donate money, because it's a 'gift of public funds.' I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.' A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development. I've donated $10 here and there out of my own pocket, but I'm hoping you Slashdotters have some creative ideas about how my organization could give something back to the teams that create free software we benefit so much from."
I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.' A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development.
First, if your manager says don't put up a web page, then don't. End of discussion. Yes he might be wrong. In fact, it's likely he's wrong. But you have a job to do -- don't risk it by challenging your boss. It's enough you're saving taxpayer dollars doing that, even if it isn't acknowledged (Thank You).
Second... I don't want my tax dollars being used for a mirror server. Plenty of other people do that already, and even if they didn't, we have bittorrent.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The knowledge that government agencies are using open source tools probably does a lot to legitimize such software. Even if you can't publicize it, you can probably let other government agencies/depts know what you use and how it helps you and how it helps with your budget (crucially important to every government entity) and encourage them to adopt similar practices; hell help them out with doing so and making the transition.
Eventually, the word will get out through suppliers, vendors, potential news articles, etc and will do more to help the movement than small monetary donations. Whaddya mean that program x is unreliable, the fire dept/tax agency/welfare dept, etc uses it?
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
How Can I Contribute To Open Source?
This question seems to be distinctly different from your paragraph. Your $10 here and there is something I've also done many times. And it's great to hear that I'm not alone. From buying Firefox swag to just realizing that FOSS Product A saved me (at least) three days of my time so the least I can do is paypal $20 to those in charge.
So if you'd like to contribute in other ways, pick a project that has something that you know a lot about or are passionate about and try to make small improvements submitted as patches. Good with embedded C? Try to help out the Firefox team in squeezing out cycles. Good with computer vision algorithms? Hit up OpenCV or even write some more script/extensions for the Gimp. What's your passion? The most important thing to remember is to not get discouraged when your patch gets rejected or deferred or sent back. Ask for feedback from the team and keep in mind you're there to support them. Firefox might be too closely knit of a project for you to break into but just perusing sourceforge or github will open up your eyes to who's out there looking for your help. A lot of these projects have wish lists.
But what I'm hearing from you is that you'd like to give FOSS more recognition than contributions. No one wants your management or tax payer to feel obligated to fund open source. That flies directly in the face of what open source wants to do for you.
I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.'
Above all, respect your management. Were I in your place, I'd take a page from the DoD and on your page post side by side both the open source products you use and the proprietary products you use with a brief explanation. Get your management to approve this (pending security concerns) and whenever a change is made or an addition of open source product is used, put it up. I think you'll find that your page--if not from the get go--will slowly start to paint a common picture: the coexistence of open source products and proprietary products not only working side by side but also supporting each other.
I would not recommend trying to make a business case out of government funded changes to open source products unless you have someone high up in your pocket and on your side. Doing something like that could really make you look foolish if you have no clout to begin with and could injure your reputability. Just a thought, you're free to proceed as you see fit.
My work here is dung.
Use it, submit bug reports, and participate on forums. When you can, push for more open-source to be used in your organisation.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Pick a project like bacula (best backup software made to date). Use it adopt it spread the word. After that you can support the project, they have a bunch of items on the to do list ( http://www.bacula.org/misc/Vote-2009.html ). If one of the items would help your work, sponsoring project would be a way to help open source software. -Jason
They buy pencils and books with a purchase order from an approved vendor. My girl friend works for the state of California. I was talking to her about dealing with invoices the other night. She looked at me like I was crazy. She never deals with invoices because she is only allowed to buy things approved ahead of time and has to go through a long and involved process to do it. Buying anything at the state level (in California) is an exercise in frustration and patience. They can't even buy electronic devices that aren't on the approved list without having the local fire official sign off on them. If they want a microwave they can't just go down to Target and buy one. They have to solicit bids from three approved vendors and MUST go with the lowest price for the item.
It's not directly aimed at your particular situation, but I created a list of ways for non-programmers to contribute:
The original list can be found here.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
You are still saving a lot of money compared to buying a proprietary solution...
Except when you're not.
I'm looking at you, RedHat and SUSE.
This whole process varies by agency. In the CA agency I work in (about 200 employees) I can buy from just about any vendor as long as they provide competitive pricing under the WSCA contract. It is suggested to solicit bids from three approved (WSCA certified) vendors, but a lot of the time they provide very similar pricing, at least in my experience with IT equipment. If prices are similar enough, at that point it is up to the agency who they will purchase from. You can provide justification as to why you are purchasing from a specific vendor (good customer service, quick shipping, etc.) even if they don't provide the lowest price. You don't necessarily ALWAYS have to go with the cheapest vendor.
It isn't really possible to make a spontaneous purchase (such as running up to Target), but in my agency there are a few people with Cal Cards, which are state credit cards with low limits (in my experience it varies from $1000-5000). All it takes is to fill out a purchase request (with a justified reason of course), wait for it to be approved (can be few hours to few days for me) and running up to Target or wherever to buy your microwave.
I think some agencies have all of their procurement done by DGS, which is insane because it is such a long and arduous process, and the agency has no control over the purchase once the request has been made with DGS.
This list is good, but it can also be used as a jumping off point. For example "submit bug reports". That is one thing you can do, but there are a lot of bug-related things you can do. Bugs are reported to the wrong place, bugs are reported with little information etc. Someone doing the grunt work dealing with that takes the load off of developers who can be doing higher level work.
Also, I wouldn't sell myself short on coding ability. Say someone files a bug that something that worked for them in version 2.3 is now broken in version 2.9. You can go through the versions and see which was the last working version - this saves the developers time in having to do that. You can even go through each code commit between versions and see which one broke the functionality - this will save developers even more time. You can do a lot of grunt work to narrow down problems for developers without even really understanding how the code works.
So while it may vary from agency to agency, the myth of "no petty purchases" in in fact a myth.
Huh? Windows Server 2008 starts around $850 and you own it, and the SA is around $150. Or you can pay $350 for three years and then $150 for every year after that. You can use whoever's cluster management you want. If you want more features, step it up to Enterprise. If you want unlimited VMs, step that up to Datacenter (at a hefty cost, but you get unlimited supported VMs on the server.)
Windows on the desktop is around $200 if you want to buy it outright, or about $100 annually for support.
Your incidents is based on the quantity of your licenses, and you do get hotfixes and premium support if Microsoft is at fault. And they do follow through on this. If it bluescreens and it's a Windows driver, they consider that a serious matter and one that you won't be dinged for as a support incident.
Frankly, I've never had to use a support incident for Windows or Windows Server. Any competent IT or developer should be able to figure it out, and being the most popular desktop OS makes it pretty easy to find fixes. I have called Microsoft support on their other products, and they were fast, escalated the issue quickly and took care of the problem. No support incident was incurred, no charge, no bill or invoice delivered.
Fault them in many ways, like most large businesses they aren't there for your benefit. They're there for their benefit. But providing support to businesses that few people complain about is clearly in their best interest.
Oh, and for a comparison, Red Hat Desktop with premium support is three times the price of Windows Enterprise (the one with all the bells and whistles.) And frankly, offering "unlimited incidents" with a two day turnaround time and no way to directly talk to someone is a joke. The Red Hat Server editions with premium support are right around where the Windows Server prices are for different SKUs.
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization isn't even funny. It's $750/socket for 24x7 phone support, per year. Hyper-V is free. Xen is free. KVM is free. ESXi is free. If you don't want Hyper-V without support, buy Windows Server Standard, it's $350 a year for the same support, and it's per server. You don't get dinged by the processor. If you're going to pay through the nose, you better be getting VMWare because at least they have the crazy advanced feature-set to back it up.
Anyhow, that's just the perspective from a midsized (i.e.: tiny and insignificant compared to the big boys) business.
No it isn't http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116499&cm_re=windows_server_2008-_-32-116-499-_-Product and no you don't. Microsoft owns it.
-- Linux user #369862
Link.
Only one Linux, and that their pet from Novell - and only with one processor per guest. Yeah, that's cross-platform. And for client operating systems there's five versions of Windows and nothing else.
And then there's the licensing. If you're using more than one Windows guest you had better be running Windows Datacenter (and the required SA) on the host or you're a filthy pirate and the BSA will be along presently to audit your books. Even if you keep that straight, if you fail over you have to wait 30 days to fail back because of the licensing.
No thanks.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
FOSS needs good documentation at this point more than anything else. There are dozens of superb FOSS applications out there which are almost unusable by all but experienced, technically knowledgeable users due to impenetrable and/or overly sparse documentation. New users, particularly new users migrating from Microsoft Windows, have neither the time nor motivation to learn the somewhat arcane terminology of man pages, nor to view one application's man page, then spend a day or so going through the same process in respect of another application that the first application's man page references (and so on, often ad infinitum). Quality documentation written for non-technical users to be able to follow and understand is essential if FOSS is to make further inroads into the Microsoft installed base. If you have technical authors, or ordinary users who are keen on and understand FOSS and have above average documentation authorship skills and a few hours to spare, I am sure that many FOSS projects would be delighted to hear from you.