MESSAGE
DATE | 2003-06-13 |
FROM | David Sugar
|
SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] The false profet (editorial)
|
From owner-hangout-desteny-at-mrbrklyn.com Fri Jun 13 13:57:55 2003 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by mrbrklyn.com (8.12.3/8.11.2/SuSE Linux 8.11.1-0.5) with ESMTP id h5DHvtnT004961 for ; Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:57:55 -0400 Received: (from mdom-at-localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.12.3/8.12.3/Submit) id h5DHvtJx004960 for hangout-desteny; Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:57:55 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: www2.mrbrklyn.com: mdom set sender to owner-hangout-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com using -f Received: from localhost.bayonne.dyndns.org (pool-141-153-166-223.mad.east.verizon.net [141.153.166.223]) by mrbrklyn.com (8.12.3/8.11.2/SuSE Linux 8.11.1-0.5) with ESMTP id h5DHvsnT004955 for ; Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:57:54 -0400 Received: from 192.168.1.104 ([192.168.1.104]) by localhost.bayonne.dyndns.org (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h5DItQSr002121; Fri, 13 Jun 2003 14:55:28 -0400 From: David Sugar To: hangout-at-nylxs.com Subject: [hangout] The false profet (editorial) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:56:04 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.5 Cc: dmarti-at-ssc.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200306131356.04927.dyfet-at-ostel.com> Sender: owner-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: David Sugar List: New Yorker GNU Linux Scene Admin: To unsubscribe send unsubscribe name-at-domian.com in the body to hangout-request-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com X-Evolution: 000006de-0000 X-Keywords: X-UID: 13337 Status: RO Content-Length: 2747 Lines: 58
It was just yesterday when I first read of Brasil's decision to migrate a significant portion of their public sector infrastructure from the proprietary Microsoft Windows environment to free (and open source) solutions, such as GNU/Linux. I recall in the past when other nations had attempted this, at least one American company would choose to both publically and privately undermine these efforts. Sometimes, as in the case of Peru special law 1609, the Ambassador of my own nation would choose to disregard his objective role of serving the common American public interest, and instead promote the exclusive interests of a select predatory proprietary software vendor, at the expense of valid American commercial business interests, such as existing American Free and Open Source software vendors.
Similarly, I expected to hear various statements from those that appose free and open source solutions in response to Brasil's actions. However, I did not expect these same false arguments to be made by one who claims to represent our community. Perhaps Mr. Stanco should read the very excellent letter from Senior Villanueva Nunez (http://proposicion.org.ar/doc/gob/VillanuevaNunez-080402.html), who explains well why it is both appropriate and necessary to use government procurement policy in this manner. Clearly there are people who do understand free software in relation to government policy; it is a shame the founder of the "The Center of Open Source & Government" appears not to.
Mr. Villanueva, among many others, explains why selecting free and open source solutions is non discriminatory, since any vendor is free to offer such solutions. Certainly, sovereign governments have the right to choose conditions of sale for products they procure. Governments in many ways may already choose to influence social policy and to encourage or discourage specific behavior through both direct and indirect financial means. Governments, as public institutions, do not spend money on their sole behalf, but on behalf of the people they represent, and as such have a direct responsibility to achieve the maximum value for the people's money that they spend. Not all value is solely by price or cost. Certainly, I believe no government or society should be forced to accept or tolerate what it feels are immoral or unethical business terms or practices. As such, I think Brasil's choice of procurement law is both a proper and just means for Brasil's government to socially and responsibly spend it's people's money.
David Sugar GNU Bayonne Maintainer
____________________________ NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene Fair Use - because it's either fair use or useless.... NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
|
|