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It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog)
Andy Updegrove has written
an open letter to US president Obama, urging support for Free/Open
Source Software. "It's time for the Obama Administration to publicly state that it whole heartedly supports FOSS procurement by the federal agencies. Not in preference to proprietary software, but on an equal basis. Only by doing so can it ensure that when it comes to getting the best deal for the American public, the best software will win."
(Log in to post comments)
Not in preference? Posted Oct 20, 2009 18:49 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]
The freedoms are worth something, so free software should be given a preference.
(aside from the fact that there are good reasons for governments to refuse proprietary software outright)
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 19:41 UTC (Tue) by havoc (guest, #2261) [Link]
Why would President Obama be more likely to do this than any other
politician?
mybarackobama.com Posted Oct 20, 2009 21:35 UTC (Tue) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] Well, the mybarackobama.com site ran Linux, while the Clinton and McCain campaign sites ran a proprietary OS IIRC. (Clinton even hired an advisor who was also working as a Microsoft PR person at the same time.)(Here's a Doc Searls piece about the campaign sites.)
mybarackobama.com Posted Oct 20, 2009 21:54 UTC (Tue) by Kit (guest, #55925) [Link]
>Well, the mybarackobama.com site ran Linux,
>while the Clinton and McCain campaign sites ran a proprietary OS IIRC.
For some reason, I doubt that their decision of what OS to use was made by the candidates themselves- or likely even ever known by the candidates, much less made on a decision of open source vs closed source.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 22:44 UTC (Wed) by Tov (guest, #61080) [Link]
Yes, where is the incentive for an american president to remove the subsidy to a company that generates a massive national revenue due to its world monopoly?
The EU obviously does not have the same indulgence...
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 19:59 UTC (Tue) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link] Could be worse. Up here in the cold snowy north, we don't even have any kind of "open data" policy like recovery.gov or data.gov, so for example no one really knows how to even start figuring out where our recovery money is actually spent.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 22:12 UTC (Tue) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link]
Just as one reference point on where the Obama Administration stands on Free & Open Source Software: The solicitor general's office (the folks that represent the Executive Branch in cases before the Supreme Court) will be arguing in the Bilski case that software patents shouldn't be defenestrated.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 4:19 UTC (Wed) by njs (guest, #40338) [Link]
Isn't it the solicitor's general job to argue for the legislative status quo, regardless of the actual merits? Sort of like how criminal defense attorney's are not actually pro-criminal, even if they defend them in court?
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 6:27 UTC (Wed) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link]
Yes, this is true, but software patents are creatures of the courts, not of the
legislative process. Nowhere in the US code regarding patents is software explicitly declared to be patentable. The patentablility of software is completely the result of a series of court decisions, and thus the view the S.G.'s office in this case is the result of legal opinions based on the administration's interpretation of the law, not the law itself.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 22:31 UTC (Tue) by socket (guest, #43) [Link] Yes, Obama absolutely should support FOSS. It's the right thing to do. I rather doubt he will...Microsoft's campaign contributions, on opensecrets.org. Note, in particular, the 2008 contributions.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 22:43 UTC (Tue) by richo123 (guest, #24309) [Link]
Well he has paid lip service to the idea:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Obama-taps-Suns-McNealy-f...
However I doubt McNealy was really the appropriate goto guy. It would be funny to have Richard Stallmann as WH "Czar" on open source. Beck versus Stallmann would be good popcorn material.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 23:22 UTC (Tue) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203) [Link]
> Beck versus Stallmann would be good popcorn material.
Oh yea. I respect RMS's views on software issues but his political views are the stock 1960's hippie proto-marxist stereotype sort of thing. Beck would have no problem unearthing enough audio/video to add RMS to the ranks of infamy in the current administration.
But at least RMS has fairly obvious qualifications to serve in any IT related capacity, unlike most of the crackpots Beck & the rest of the net has been happily shooting at like fish in a barrel. And also unlike others I could name in various fields, RMS seems bright enough to avoid falling into the fallacy of thinking expertise in one area (software) makes him an authority in general or politics in specific and push a political agenda using his well deserved notoriety.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 2:33 UTC (Wed) by richo123 (guest, #24309) [Link]
Oh I'm sure Stallmann would have lasted about 5 minutes in the toxic DC atmosphere.
I can think of hundreds of labels he would have acquired in that time.
RMS is too smart to fall for that.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 2:39 UTC (Wed) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
There is no public evidence that RMS has Marxist sympathies of any sort. These accusations are scattered about cheaply by Open Source promoters. Please don't repeat falsehoods.
RMS has published interestingly nuanced thoughts on the possible relationships between people and with societal institutions. Some of them are unusual, but none of them can be described as "stock", or conforming to any known label. Most particularly, when he describes changing people's behavior, he has always advocated persuasion, not force. Results come too slowly for your typical revolutionary, but the principle has been remarkably effective so far.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 4:07 UTC (Wed) by jordanb (guest, #45668) [Link]
The court of public opinion isn't a court of law. The standards of evidence and proof are considerably.. less rigorous.
With Fox News and friends essentially running a total-life background check on everyone Obama appoints, and then trumpeting the slightest imperfection, what's available on RMS is far more than enough to turn him into a pariah.
OTOH, it would be hilarious if they brought in ESR as a character assassin and then *his* dirty laundry got aired. There's some jaw-dropping stuff on that blog of his.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 15:39 UTC (Wed) by dkite (guest, #4577) [Link]
You got a problem with that?
Derek
ps :)
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 17:24 UTC (Wed) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link]
Yeah, but this is what news outlets *ought* to be doing.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 21, 2009 14:41 UTC (Wed) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] Open Source promoters? IMO it was one individual, and we don't hear much from him these days.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 22, 2009 15:14 UTC (Thu) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]
Oh, come on! There's a parade of individuals writing for and contributing to the more intellectually vacant computing-related sites whose agenda appears to be badmouthing Stallman at every turn, using political labels (amongst other things) in that absurd but sadly ubiquitous US-centric fashion that would have even Margaret Thatcher branded a Marxist for some inscrutable reason.
Most of those people seem to agitate for permissive licensing in the name of "true freedom" and the usual selection of ignorant assertions of a similar nature. It's hard to know whether this is a genuine grass-roots herd of individuals who derive inspiration from "Open Source", or whether it's an astroturfing campaign on behalf of certain corporate interests. Either way, it's a tiresome and tasteless distraction from more important concerns.
It's Time for Obama to Come Out for FOSS (The Standards Blog) Posted Oct 20, 2009 23:42 UTC (Tue) by MisterIO (guest, #36192) [Link]
Probably someone will give him some prize for his wholeheartedly and successfull support of FOSS, even if he didn't actually do anything like that. Oh, wait, didn't something like that already happen?!
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