Agree about the demos being the role. This is something to address
after the LBS happens, which I think can be a starting point for a
Government show (unless another group wants to start now, as I don't
have time to do both). However, having beein in both Government
(federal) & commercial, we may have some advantages in that we can
show with Linux & Open Source that you can use multiple vendors to
acquire products (I know the Federal Acquisition Regulations are
supposed to promote competition, and to single-source requires special
justification). I'm not as certain at the state, local, & school
level what the rules are. I know there's a project for Linux in
Education (under seul.org). One issue that Open Source has had is
knowledge of the decision-makers, especially on the support side (who
do I go to for support). Let's face it, the commercial world has lots
of money to spend marketing, putting together proposals, etc. I see
our job being the demos / awareness, and the Red Hat, Linuxcare, &
Mission Critical Linux of the world the actual proposal / selling.
jeff smith
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> 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
> :-)
