[NTLUG:Discuss] Texas OpenSource Initiative

[Steve Baker]

Bobby Sanders wrote:
> 
> --On Tue, 9 Apr 2002 14:46:12 -0500, "Bob Byron" <bbyron at radit.com> said:
> 
>   >> It's time for the Texas LUGS to sponsor a bill to promote
>   >> Opensource software in the state.
> 
>   BB> I am not attempting to be belligerent here, but why?  I believe
>   BB> in and frequently use OpenSource software, but why does the
>   BB> state legislature need to get involved?

I think it would be reasonable to have a law to require the State
(and Federal, County and City) government departments to provide
all of their services in an OS/vendor/platform neutral fashion.

I shouldn't have to have a copy of WORD in order to read a letter from
my son's school teacher - and I should be able to access all of the
state's web services from any computer that adheres to established
W3C standards.  I helped to pay for those services - and it's only
reasonable that they should be provided in a form that I can use.

You'd be pretty upset if there was a requirement to own a Ford vehicle
in order to drive down certain state-owned roads for example.  We don't
seem to need legislation to prevent *that* from happening - but that's
probably because there are no features of Chevy's that make them
incompatible with Ford's - and there is no 95% monopoly for any one
car company.

Discrimination by the majority against the minority is bad - and
discriminating against Linux users is no less bad than discriminating
against any other minority.  Laws are needed to prevent that.

I *don't* think it's reasonable to have laws that would require the
State to *use* OpenSource software though.  There might well be good
reasons not to - other than just the price.

However, there should certainly be some kind of enquiry (or better still -
an ongoing review process) to seek cheaper and more effective solutions
to the government's computing needs - and if that should point to an
OpenSource solution then one would presume that this would be a no-brainer.

----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
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