LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Richard Russell <richardrussell@mail.com>
  To  : Michael Davies <michaeld@senet.com.au>
        David Lloyd <lloy0076@rebel.net.au>
  Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 17:30:41 +1030

[getting OT] RE: Meeting Speaker Proposal

> Likewise the SA government will find out the same with The Contract.  We
> needn't do anything for this discovery to be found out.

I have no faith that those making the decisions even realise that it isn't
working, and I also have no faith that even if they did realise it, they
would put it ahead of their political future...

Could I suggest that some sort of independant group be formed to lobby
governemnt (if it hasn't already been suggested)... The problem with the
focus being on Linux is that Linux to them (Them Inc) is just another brand
name, without the backing of a big multinational. Any lobbying IMHO has to
focus on on "Linux" or even on "Open Source", and particularly not on
"non-MS". It needs to be clearly unbiased, make no special mention of our
favourite pieces of software or organisations, and needs to insist that the
government help create a level playing field by _not_ committing to an
exclusive single vendor solution for anything major. Sure, I have no
problems if individual projects or even whole departments choose "Blah Inc"
to provide their SOE, and "Ork Inc" to manage their IT needs, but these need
to be somewhat open, and allow smaller subgroups to go a different way if it
makes business (should I say government... no -- that would be an oxymoron)
sense.

Point is that if LinuxSA was to get political, it would be pushing the Linux
wheelbarrow (and rightly so, because that is what this group is here for).
Personally, I would not choose to push the linux barrow, but would push the
level-ground barrow, and hope that the best solution for each situation
wins... and if that happens to be MS Windows, so be it, as long as it's
chosen on merit (not technical merit, business merit)...

my $2 worth

rr

-- 
LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on irc.linux.org.au
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject