[ale] Two awesome essays on open source and copyright

[Joseph A Knapka]

"Michael D. Hirsch" wrote:
> 
> Jeff Hubbs writes:
>  > Joseph A Knapka wrote:
>  >
>  > > Jeff Hubbs wrote:
>  > >
>  > >
>  > >>Many of these same issues and thought processes seems to have gone
>  > >>through the minds of the Peruvians.  Incredibly (to me, at least),
>  > >>right-thinking people appear to hold sway in Peru.
>  > >>
>  > >
>  > > Sho' 'nuf. And MicroShaft is terrified that this "viral"
>  > > right-thinking will spread to the US, a "danger" that
>  > > Dr. Nunez's letter makes all the more likely. His arguments
>  > > are extremely powerful, and as far as I can see they
>  > > simply *can't* be ignored by any government that professes
>  > > to operate in the best interests of its citizens.
>  > >
>  > > Cheers,
>  > >
>  > > -- Joe
>  >
>  > Roger that!  It's amazing to me that this guy is putting the country's
>  > big-picture interests first.  Same could be said of any country or business.
> 
> Well, I agree with one of the /. posts.  Money that the US Government
> spends on MS software goes to citezens and constituents.  Money that
> the Peruvian Government spends on MS software goes out of the
> country.  So MS is inherently in a stronger position in the US.  The
> question becomes how much influence can MS get the US to put on Peru.

However, as the letter points out, the money issues are
insignificant beside the security, interoperability, and
transparency issues for government software.

If Peru makes a go of this and demonstrates that open-source
can provide reliable enterprise computing solutions on a
national scale, other national governments will follow. And
if government bodies (frequently viewed as incompetent and
wasteful) can pull it off, major corporations will be right
behind. Peru is like the tip of a chisel being inserted
between Microsoft and its monopoly-beholden customer base.
I bet there are many pairs of dirty shorts at M$ these days.

(Yes, I realize that paragraph expresses a pretty naive
view of the situation, but honestly, Dr. Nunez's letter
seems poised to do more for open-source than ten years
of US DOJ frittering...)

Cheers,

-- Joe
    Any OS distinguishable from Windows is not sufficiently broken.

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