Basques at the Leading Edge of FLOSS Thinking at Robert Pogson

The Basques are an interesting people. They are nominally part of Spain and France but fierce local nationalism survives within. Not surprisingly, fierce independence in software is exhibited by a recent change to their laws:

“"The Basque Country decree takes national laws and European regulations one step further", explains Cenatic’s spokesperson. "These laws and regulations are about promoting sharing and reuse of public administration software. The Basque decree amplifies openness and reuse of existent and future public body applications."

The decree instructs public administrations to make public everything involved in their software development, says the spokesperson. "That includes purchasing and the maintenance process. It should all become open data."”

via 'Basque Country's open source law challenges other Spanish regions' | Joinup.

Chuckle. I think Wintel is losing its grip on Spain/Europe. Openness does not promote monopoly. Openness trims the horns of Wintel. Wintel has thrived on divide-and-conquer secrecy. Openness makes all plain with no opportunity to buy off segments. FLOSS is the right way to do IT.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.