On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Dan Armak wrote:
> On Wednesday 04 February 2004 13:25, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > I don't oppose recommending the use of open source software, but dislike
> > laws requiring them very much. What I do support are laws requiring the
> > government to use only software with open, documented formats and
> > protocols. Other than that, laws that mandate the use of open source
> > software stiffel competition and may actually reduce the quality of open
> > source software. I think many vendors can legitimately produce proprietary
> > software, and I will happily use it if the formats and protocols that it
> > uses are open and documented.
>
> Thinking it over again, you've convinced me that this position is better.
> Certainly if I had to choose between a law that enforces FOSS and a law that
> enforces free&open standards and formats, I'd prefer the latter.
> Thanks for reminding me of the value of rational arguments ;-)
>
You're welcome. Of course, I came into this conclusion myself after a
similar discussion in Linux-IL that was conducted slightly after the IBM
Linux Free Software and Open Source conference day.
> However, if the only choice were between requiring FOSS and nothing at all
> (proprietary software and formats), I would still have to choose the former,
> even though it's unpleasant in itself. It's something over nothing.
>
Well, yes, but we I think most countries will be easier to understand the
important of using open standards (because closed formats are causing
everybody a lot of trouble), than mandating them to use free software,
which may be considerably less better than its proprietary equivalents, so
as to not be worth the saving in cost.
I think organizations (governments or otherwise) should try to switch as
much of their infrastructure as possible to open source software, because
it's a good long-term investment. If you use it now, and find it appealing
enough to contribute some resources (money, HR, support, etc.) it will be
improved and then it will be a benefit for everybody who can use a higher
quality software free of charge.
Like I stressed, one of the things I like in OSS is that in proprietary
software I can always blame the vendor for the software having a bug, or
missing a feature, and the fact that I have nothing to do about it. With
free software, I always blame myself, for not going to the code and fixing
it. (and usually, know how to contact the developers or their bug
tracker).
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Writing a BitKeeper replacement is probably easier at this point than getting
its license changed.
Matt Mackall on OFTC.net #offtopic.
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