[luau] For Ohau Locals Only

[Hawaii Linux Institute]

R. Scott Belford wrote:

>Are you certain that it is in our best interests to put a yet-to-be
>released OS, Fedora, on a city-councilman's computer?  If the city will
>not allow a Linux machine to connect, what has changed to allow you to
>put the machine in his office?  Are you really asking any of the several
>hundred subscribers to this list to just stop by his office?
>  
>

This project has a very different objective.  Our main goal, at the 
first stage, is to find problems (technological & political) and try to 
solve them.  The experience that we accumulate will become our most 
important asset.  Everyone is being forewarned that we are going to have 
a lot of problems in this endeavor.  Tons of problems.  But if we can 
package this a success, this will be the best selling point for Linux 
desktops.

If we can demonstrate the viability of Linux desktops, then, with time, 
the city's IS decision makers will have to welcome Linux servers as an 
option.  Most of us probably don't like politicians, but they are the 
ones that make things happen.

When I first came back to Oahu (after 20+ years), I had four computers 
on my desktop, each running a different localized version of Win95 
(which subsequently changed to Win98, then Win98SE): English, Japanese, 
Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.  I am sure everyone knows 
why.  With RedHat 9 (not Mandrake, not SuSE, not Debian), I am now able 
to use only one computer.  Furthermore, some screwy characters may pop 
up when you use the English version of Microsoft Word to read a Word 
.doc file that was generated with, say, a Chinese version of Word (and 
vice versa, which can be very embarrassing).  In this regard, the Linux 
version of OpenOffice.org is doing a much better job.  For this reason, 
and very much this reason alone, we need to seriously consider Linux.

Senator/City Councilman Tam and I went back a long long way.  Neither of 
us really care what computer system the city should be running.  This is 
the domain of IS professionals.  However, we cannot ignore the fact 
that, as discussed in the preceding paragraph, Linux may become an 
important piece in putting together the "International Multi-Cultural 
Center" project that City Councilman Tam has been blueprinting 
throughout the 20+ years of his political career.

Yesterday, Taiwan's Linux consortium announced that they "envision" a 
$35 billion Linux-related software industry by 2007.  And, as I 
mentioned previously, Japan's next phase NII (National Internet 
Infrastructure) project may go entirely Linux.  It will be very nice if 
we can get even a tiny piece of the pie.  The above thought, which, as 
many here will tell me, is much closer to fantasy than any possibility 
of reality, may very likely go nowhere, but we cannot afford to do 
nothing.  At the present time, as long as I am underwriting the cost, no 
one should complain.  At least we will learn some experience.  Wayne