On 10-06-08 10:25 PM, Leslie S Satenstein wrote:
What did they win? Did they get proof that it will not happen again?
Sorry to be the pessimist. LInux is still fighting an uphill battle. I
wish it was not so.
SFL, the free, open source software community at large and Quebec
citizen as a whole won big with this, including:
- Media visibility on how the governement's inaction leads to
Microsoft's hegemony
- a 41 page document describing in detail the underlying problemas
leading to this, including how the government asked CGI Group Inc. for
advice on how to present Linux and OOo ad non-viable when clearly the
same government publically acknowledges it's not the case
- A lot of legal documentation with definitions, references, proof of
absence of any serious studies to the effect free software is not
viable, and more. All public, written by non-geeks. The actual judgement
is very readable by any "non-legal" human
- Interviews where C. Béraud and his lawyer explain this again and again
on radio and TV, to non-geeks
- Reference material and opinions coming from all the comments to news
sites that relayed this
All the above is a very useful tool or set of tools when you do advocacy
at any level (either passively or actively). It's one thing to be the
Linux geek pounding endlessly about Linux power and features (etc...),
another one much different to read about it in your language, in the
news, by non-technical figures of authority, in a way you understand. In
fact it's become somewhat political and goes beyond our little command
line prompt, if I may say.
This also generates discussion in other communities and governments
where the same questions are now being asked and this small victory
cited as reference.
Sorry for being optimistic but I felt a very annoying pinch in The Force
when these news came out :)
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