On 7/15/06, manny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jul 2006, Dean Michael Berris wrote:
> At any rate, I don't see still why government should only use free
> software still when proprietary "source available" _locally developed_
> software does the job as well if not better than open source software.
Cost? guaranteed access? specially if government has enough support
people? We have a problem with one of the sdks we are using. its the
only one we can afford and the vendor is dragging their feet and we
have no choice but to delay deployment. the vendor is in east europe.
we have never met him face to face. we are not even sure if he stole
the software from someone else.
the mere fact that the source is available is absolutely invaluable.
with industry standard "code in the big, 10% coding 90% debugging"
development practices proprietary software has a big advantage. but
with agile software practices open source software runs circles around
proprietary software in terms of deployment speed. I remember some
american executives asking if they can outsource some development to
us because their 40 man software team is so slow. Their IT head
actually laughed at us when he asked where we do our testing and we
pointed at our workstations. they even asked where our noc was and we
did not have any. i really have no idea how the rest of the world does
development and deployment because i have never worked for a big
company before. we do all business via email and we developed own
metadata system. if only i have enough radios i will link all of us in
a wireless mesh and i can work anywhere. paperwork is just too slow
for us. our partners call me at home and usually i fix their problems
in an hour or two.
Our methods was designed around the software and we just build enough
software to meet our needs today, no more. and that saved us a lot of
money.
Any organization can do that now. i wonder what will happen if one
organization can put together different bits of information in a
distributed database and provide them in real time to everyone who
needs its in the organization? knowledge is power.
imagine a wireless sensor network monitoring pollution or stores
connected to each other so that supplies can be shipped to them just
before thay run out. or rmaybe a mall monitoring where their costumers
live so they can decide where to construct the next mall. or just
maybe your regular party member writing down what they saw today.
they can then put it together in a database. maybe they have this
small boxes with mesh software and hardware with cameras and submit
pictures along with coordinates taken via gps glonass or galileo
to a "website" where this would be put in its proper place in a map
and this "map" is available in to everyone via wireless mesh in real
time.
now your demonstrator can outmaneuver the police. heheh.
i place more trust in private enterprise to do this. our government is
tied down by bidding rules, security of tenure and other BS. open
source will never have a chance unless these are all fixed. can the it
manager in a government office just download software now and test it
and then deploy it? then replace it with totally different one after
two weeks because the maintainer was a total asshole and told you to
RTFM? no way.
a political party with total disrespect for all traditions with a
heavy geek membership will have a better chance at making this
happen. there will be no security of tenure to think about. no
separation pay. no bidding rules. no national debt. no BS.
this hypothetical party can really kick ass! net centric partisan politics!
--
things i hate about my linux pc:
1. it takes more than a second to boot up
2. keeps asking about filenames and directories
3. does not remember what i was working on yesterday
4. does not remember all the changes i have ever made
5.cannot figure out necessary settings by itself
_________________________________________________
Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List
[email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph)
Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists
Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
