Linux in the News: Week in Review

June 9th, 2002 by Willy Smith in

Germany and Taiwan announce major plans to move government machines to Linux.

This has been an interesting week for Linux. News reports and government announcements indicate that it has gained even more acceptance in Europe and the Far East. At the same time, open source is being politicized in the US.

On Monday, the German government announced that it's putting Linux on government machines, starting with various ministry systems. According to the BBC, "Proponents of open source software for governments say the code is more bug-resistant and more secure--as well as saving huge amounts of money thanks to avoiding being locked into a single company's licensing fees..."

For some perspective, the next two articles are from the German press. (You can use Babelfish to translate them.)

From Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany: "Der Staat macht sich für Linux stark"

This one is also from Suedeutsche Zeitung: "Spielball der Politik" ("Linux: Political Football")

Even if you can't read German, take a look at this discussion forum, "Can The Linux Operating System Completely Replace Windows?" All you probably need to know is that Ja means "Yes".

This next article is from Kuro5hin and discusses the Taiwanese government's decision to move to Linux for both state and private use. If you think about it, this is big news.

Meanwhile, from the look of things behind the Green Curtain, open source may be the next member to join The Axis of Evil: "The white paper, Opening the Open Source Debate, from the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (ADTI), will suggest that open source opens the gates to hackers and terrorists."

Just remember folks, it's a lot safer to use open-source software if you're outside the US.

Willy Smith is a Grenadan nerd who lives with his wife and three daughters in Costa Rica.

email: willysmith@motmot.net

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Governments SHOULD use Open Source software

On June 10th, 2002 Romulus007 (not verified) says:

I do think its high time federal, state (provincial here in Canada), and city governments use Open Source software in order to run its affairs. Considering the huge debts that plague these entities, along with yearly deficits, it's clueless to me why they don't jump ship.

My federal government has a $600 Canadian debt and the City of Toronto keeps facing rising costs to provide services since the feds passed the buck on the the provincial governments, who are now passing the buck on to city (municipalities) mayors. My question is this: Why the phuck do we have 3 levels of government if no one wants to provide services?

Perhaps if all government departments here in Canada had used Corel Linux along with a popular office package, I'm sure Corel would not have been in the mess they're in now. Even more insulting, many government departments were using MS Office instead of Corel WordPerfect Office. How stupid was that? This would NOT have happened in Japan!

Oh well...I hope more countries follow suit...especially 3rd World and Developing countries. They simply do NOT have cash to pay for stupid Winblows licenses and MS-Office crap!

Re: Error above!! I mean $600 Billion Canadian

On June 10th, 2002 Romulus007 (not verified) says:

Ooops...sorry, I did NOT mean a total debt of $600. I wish!!!!

Instead, our wonderful country of 33 million has a national debt of approximatel $600 billion Canadian.

I say "open source everything in the gov, shcools, libraries, university, business, etc."

Every dollar saved stays in the country. At least we can fuel a domestic TRAINING & UPGRADING economy with wealth being spread around instead of it all going to M$.

Ask and you will receive

On June 9th, 2002 Terry (not verified) says:

Just the other day I read Maddog's article "Software Livre", and I commented that I'd like to read more articles about communities, governments, and the private sector coming together to use their (our) resources wisely.

BAM! Thanks Willy! Keep it coming!

Peace,

Terry.

P.S. Do I read that right? Your a native of Grenada who is now living in Costa Rica? How do you like it there?

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