2013 February 07 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for February 7th, 2013

Freedom Should Count in Procurement

Published by Robert Pogson February 7th, 2013 in technology. 0 Comments

While price and performance may be the most important reasons to choose FLOSS, “Member of the European Parliament Amelia Andersdotter wants public administrations to consider software freedom as one of the reasons to select new ICT solutions. "Authorities should base their choice at least partially on an ideological framework. What freedoms does the software give to their citizens, enterprises, authorities and schools?"
see MEP: 'Authorities should include freedoms when deciding on software' | Joinup.

Amen. FLOSS should be the default IMHO, not a choice after running many hurdles. In education, in particular, there’s nothing that cannot be done with FLOSS so why not use it everywhere? The most important factor in effectiveness of IT in schools is having more seats. Since the capital cost and maintenance costs of GNU/Linux are very small, it allows nearly double the seats and should be the default choice. In business or government, the situation is a little different since nearly every worker has a PC but PCs can last twice as long using FLOSS so the answer is not different.

The four software freedoms:

running the software,
examining the software,
modifying the software, and
distributing the software

all count but probably running and distribution are the most important. Being able to legally replicate the software on a PC in an organization for $0 in licensing is huge. It affects installation, maintenance, routine operation and backup. For anyone involved in education or government the ability to distribute software to students or citizens has huge implications and will certainly stimulate the GDP.

Since the benefits of FLOSS last indefinitely and the benefits of a non-FREE licence are severely limited in comparison, this is a no-brainer. Which car would you buy, the one with the indefinite $free guarantee or the one that’s guaranteed as long as you are in the parking lot? FREEDOM is priceless in IT.

see also “Information Economy Report 2012 – The Software Industry and Developing Countries”, a UN publication:
“While the adoption of FOSS is currently most widely promoted in Europe, there are strong reasons for developing and transition economies to rely more on FOSS. For software enterprises and developers, FOSS can promote domestic market development and local innovation. Rather than purchasing software licences and services abroad, local FOSS development, sales and services can help keep resources within the local economy, opportunities for income generation and employment. FOSS can also enable local software SMEs to establish new niche markets. Governments should seize the various advantages of relying on FOSS when this offers a competitive solution to their software needs. Technological trends, especially with regard to cloud computing, mobile applications and big data, are further accentuating the reliance on FOSS. “

- Robert Pogson

Meaning

Published by Robert Pogson February 7th, 2013 in technology. 0 Comments

“the days of Linux being the mascot of the trench coat mafia are long gone. Linux has grown up and is on its way to becoming the darling of the business world. Many out there deny that statement; but if you dig in deep enough, you find that most of the larger enterprise-level companies already rely upon Linux. It’s various governments around the world, Google, Facebook, Novell, IBM, Panasonic, Virgin America, Cisco, Conoco Phillips, Omaha Steaks, Amazon, Peugeot, Wikipedia, New York Stock Exchange. You cannot deny the collective power of that list – and each of them has grown to depend upon Linux.”via Linux Advocates: Linux: What it means.

Amen. In the 1990s there was scarcely any space on retail shelves for FLOSS. Now it’s everywhere as Android/Linux, Chrome OS, and even GNU/Linux. It has been a long slow road. It has been a lonely road because there are few, if any, GNU/Linux salesmen. Dell, Canonical, IBM and others have changed that. We knew we were winning because the enemy was fighting hard just to maintain share. They lost the battle when retail shelves opened up. They will lose the war when the majority of retail shelves open up. That should happen this year if I can judge by my local Walmart. There the “desktop” models don’t even get out of their boxes and a few notebooks are displaying error messages from that other OS. Meanwhile there is a whole aisle of Android/Linux machines.

What it all means is that M$ could not fool all of the people all of the time. The price the world has paid to feed M$’s greed has been huge but the end is in sight. Within the next few years Free Software may well have a near monopoly on computer OS.

- Robert Pogson

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.