Great news
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Mar 17, 2013 3:18 AM EDT |
It's a "small step" but a very important one. Okay.....so this means FOSS is now the first choice, if possible, for Government applications.....How about Defence ? My understanding is that some irresponsible (?) person removed Unix based systems from the British nuclear submarine fleet and replaced them with Windows. As an ex-naval officer, that terrifies me. However, the moves to FOSS throughout Europe seem to be accelerating and in my opinion it can do nothing but improve matters. To quote a nursing sister from the South Pacific, I may be a "cockeyed optimist", but the UK mandate certainly looks great on paper at least. |
| Fettoosh Mar 17, 2013 10:59 AM EDT |
Quoting: the UK mandate certainly looks great on paper at least. After making a number of false promises, I think this time they are committed and determined, otherwise they wouldn't have gone to the extent of creating the “When to use open source” guidelines and published them on the wide open Internet. It looks pretty good, well thought of, and very serious. Well, at least one hopes so. |
| TxtEdMacs Mar 17, 2013 11:14 AM EDT |
[serious] Sorry guys, but ... I had seen this story earlier, elsewhere and it contained a quote that gives lie to the word "mandate". Instead it suggests that the best tool be used and note was taken by some commentators that this could well mean status quo rules. That is, where the unit's comfort with current choice might well trump suggestions to prefer open and free alternatives. It would be best to withhold the cheers for seeing concrete action in this direction. Remember when the U.S.S.R. had the model of environmental rules? Can you remember the devastation left by their military dumps as they retreated from Eastern Europe? This might be of the same ilk, but hold the salt. The latter might induce auto immune diseases and heart problems. [/serious] |
| Ridcully Mar 17, 2013 6:33 PM EDT |
I hear you TxtEd, but straight from the UK manual:Quoting:“Use open source software in preference to proprietary or closed source alternatives, in particular for operating systems, networking software, web servers, databases and programming languages.” That's pretty explicit. Certainly, and I agree with you, there is still "wriggle room" for dedicated Windows (or other proprietary software) users to thumb their noses, but the overall move, and mandated by government regulation, is now towards FOSS alternatives. I still remain very optimistic, but I'd also agree this will be a slow process. And if you want to see a country that doesn't even look like heading in the UK direction as yet, just check out Australia. It could be called Redmond Burg Jr. where software is concerned. Oh.....and at Australian Federal Government levels, we are very, very, very desperately trying to save money......exits stage left while laughing hysterically. |
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