Randy Edwards' eloquence about government adoption of free software
certainly raises some interesting issues.
I'm rather shocked about the pirating of commercial software by
government agencies, because Microsoft in particular, has been going
after software pirates rather earnestly - they filed two lawsuits in
the deep South last week - and it would be incredibly embarrassing
in the very least if the government organizations got caught in the net.
I think that there is a role that GNHLUG could play, but we would have
to be very careful to define the role and stick to it. We could provide
referrals for free application software as well as help explain what
Linux and the free software movement is all about, perhaps by providing
demonstrations along the lines that the SLUG is doing with BUNs or
whatever it's called now. But, we have to be very careful to remain
(perceived as being) vendor-neutral. Perhaps pointing out the various
Web pages that index applications and so forth would be a Good Thing.
But, we should stop short of specific recommendations, although if an
agency wanted to know if WordPerfect was available on Linux, we could
certainly answer the question ! :-).
Of course, then we'd have to figure out who in the group can do this.
(Here I go again, kicking over another rock and watching the ants
pour out. Sorry, gang, but I'm busy enough right now as it is!)
Just my 20 millidollars' worth,
Bayard (Coolidge, for those who don't recognize my home e-mail address
:-)
