A quote from another mailing I'm on (OSS in military) had me chuckling - equating software piracy prosecution to small arms fire and IEDs.<br><br>--quote--<br>I'm trying to express the licensing pains that we have all felt in
the field. The vast majority of MS installations are on "pirated"
licenses - and there is a myth that the services have an
"enterprise licenses." Someone called to get the "Enterprise
License" code and we were informed that licenses were all
associated with various system purchases, and that someone at the
unit was supposed to be keeping track of all the licenses. <br>
Of course this was not occurring - so
we added "software piracy prosecution" to the "Operational Risk
Management" matrix along with small arms fire, IED attack, vehicle
accident, vehicle mishap and dehydration.<br clear="all">--end quote--<br><br>Thus the growth of Open Source Software in military and all branches of government. It's not always "official" but like in corporate IT shops, it comes in with the tech crowd "below the radar" until it reaches a critical mass and some management person realizes they have both good tools and cost savings using these things. Then it becomes "official". Then it becomes mandatory. Then we win!<br>
<br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br>I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.<br><br><br>