[luau] Fuel for the Linux Fire

[Casey Roberts]

--- Virgil <virgil at hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
> Here's an interesting read on the Open Source Battle
> that's taking place in State of Oregon. Funny thing
> about the opponents to Open Source (Microsoft) is
> that they believe that if this bill would pass,
> legislation will mandate certain types of software
> over others. Ummm isn't that happening now with
> Windows and Office?

They made mention to the State of Texas bill (SB1579)
introduced recently that followed along the same
lines.  What I find especially interesting about the
two bills is that they don't necessarily promote Open
Source software. Instead they both force government
employees to not only consider OSS along with
proprietary software, but to provide JUSTIFICATION for
adopting proprietary solutions.  This is exactly the
kind of measure needed to bring true competition to
software procurement in government.

Also, I noticed something else a little interesting in
both bills.  They both mentioned that the state
governments would have to "avoid acquiring products
that do not comply with open standards for
interoperability or data storage; and avoid acquiring
products that are known to make unauthorized transfers
of information to, or permit unauthorized control of
or modification to the state government's computer
systems by, parties outside the control of the state
government."  Seems a little like common sense, but I
wonder how proprietary vendors will take that?

Casey Roberts

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