On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 02:12 +0800, Dean Michael Berris wrote:
> The proposition is, that we should *NOT* worry about FOSS in the > government _yet_ (or promoting it further via legislation) because as > I've already stated, it's needless. We should prove to ourselves first > that we can come up with quality software first before even thinking > about making the government use the software "touted to be more > stable, reliable, and more robust the current commercial software > solutions". Hmmm... if software developers CAN code in X language with Y technology, it can be possible that they CAN code in X language with Z technology. That has been done BEFORE (think old Unix systems in the past, old DOS systems in the past). And that can be done AGAIN. Like virtually any custom software, any company who'd like to participate HAS to CONFORM to the standards set by the specifications of the contracting party, in this case, governments. > > There's no reason why BOTH cannot be > > pursued concurrently. > > Of course. We can talk the talk, and keep talking the talk and not > walk the walk. We advocate the use of FOSS in government and let's > require government to use it -- but are we ourselves _producing_ the > "quality FOSS" that government requires? Like what I've said above, when there's a requirement, any company who'd like to participate would have to conform to the standard if they want to participate. Else, you could always choose not to participate, and spare your company of having to deal with under-the-table red tape. > If the idea was to save on cost, then FOSS is not the answer. There > are more effective means of cutting down on cost and increasing > revenue to cover for expenses -- and belt tightening is one of them. > Removing the pork barrel is another, but I digress. So maintaining the status quo would save on cost? If change is necessary then change must be done. > I maintain, that unless the people who draft the bill have an idea as > to what FOSS is about and that the Philippines can develop the > software that its own government needs, worrying about using FOSS or > Commercially Obtained Proprietary Software is a needless headache. At its current form, the draft bill is still very weak (got this info from Stallman about a few days ago, and I agree with him). _________________________________________________ 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
