Software vendors urge limits on open source

CNET News.com ^ | 28 November 2002 | CNET

[chilepepper]

The Initiative for Software Choice, which counts Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Intel among its backers, said in comments filed Tuesday that the department should "avoid crafting needless and potentially detrimental IT policy to promote the use" of open-source software. "Open source" means every software developer can view the source code for software, modify it, and use it for free.

The initiative, which launched in May and is chaired by a group called CompTIA, an organization that has close ties to Microsoft, is worried about a recent report that concluded the Defense Department relies on open-source software and recommended its further adoption.

[TomServo]

Has anybody got a free Ebonics translator/reader?

Check the next Linux distro...

[Bush2000]

Try MySQL under Linux. *very* nice for WWW applications and very well integrated w/ Apache and PHP

Unless, of course, you need it to scale like Oracle or SQL Server.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Unless, of course, you need it to scale like Oracle or SQL Server.

Is that why Oracle is so popular? Gee whiz.

[Bush2000]

Take your thorazine and get back in line with the rest of drooling Chronics and Acutes.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

So your sarcascisms only show a really awkward MS state of mind...

Yeah buddy. Better watch those sarcascisms. The Moderators will be down on you in no time.

[chilepepper]

i'm sure DELL and Gateway would have a lot to say about Microsoft's power of persuasion as you so artfully put it (guffaw guffaw). DELL stopped supporting Linux once already on desktops under pressure from the evil software empire

M$ is starting to play rough with their competition now, which is both Open Source and... government agencies (at the levels of nations, states, and munincipalities)

so at what point does a government cut a deal with Microsoft to 1) either allow official snooping 2) allow official filtering 3) allow official control over the machine?

item two is already happening in Red China, thank you Microsoft, Cisco and SUN.

[chilepepper]

cool!

[beavus]

i'm sure DELL and Gateway would have a lot to say about Microsoft's power of persuasion as you so artfully put it (guffaw guffaw). DELL stopped supporting Linux once already on desktops under pressure from the evil software empire

Oh now I see why you compare Bill Gates with a war mongering totalitarian dictator modelled after Josef Stalin. At first I thought you were just being irrational.

Not that this stale issue hasn't been argued before, but yes, Dell and Gateway preferred to keep the discount on MS products rather than buying MS products at the same price everyone else does. Your anger in this case is completely misplaced and should instead be against Dell and Gateway for not offering a more expensive MS-free product.

Sorry I misunderstood. I guess you DON'T know the difference between persuasion and brute force. Pity.

[chilepepper]

Yah, except mySQL is free and scales quite well.

if you need more, you can get Oracle under Linux and a whole slew of other DB's which put M$ offerings to shame.

SOLID, Sybase, Informix and probably even DB/2 already run on Linux or will soon...

remember that all the real big IBM clusters are being tied together now with...Linux

surely you've heard of BEOWULF and CONDOR culstering software? ...all Open Source and rock solid.

[chilepepper]

yah, but what about the Microsoft assisting the Red Chinese government in controlling the internet?

[beavus]

Is that link supposed to persuade me that Bill Gates is like Josef Stalin? Give me some reason for judging your links worth pursuing. There aren't enough hours in a day to pursue every link associated with a ridiculous posting.

[chilepepper]

i was thinking bill gates is more on the lines of saruman. maybe steve balmer is more like stalin, or genghis khan...

[beavus]

"i was thinking bill gates is more on the lines of saruman. maybe steve balmer is more like stalin, or genghis khan..."

Well said. I'll check out that link now...

[beavus]

I had read that article. The question is whether MS should screen its customer base so that it doesn't directly sell to someone who will use its product for immoral purposes.

I wouldn't blame MS or any of the other hundreds of US companies that trade with China if they stopped selling on moral grounds. However, policing is the purvue of government. As far as I can tell, MS does not trade with Cuba, in compliance with US law. Presumably US chemical companies obey laws proscribing them from trading with Iraq.

I don't have a good answer for what MS should do. However, MS is by no means unique in this matter. China is one of our biggest trading partners.

Are all companies that trade with China, in your eyes, evil? Perhaps you should avoid their products.

[Bush2000]

Yah, except mySQL is free and scales quite well.

Surrrrrrre, it does. FR uses it, and it fell over on election night. Nice DB.

if you need more, you can get Oracle under Linux and a whole slew of other DB's which put M$ offerings to shame.

If the tables were turned, you'd be comparing Larry Ellison to Adolph Hitler right about now...

[chilepepper]

Oracle is pretty lousy. Sybase much better, SOLID even better, but watch out for IBM's DB/2.

[chilepepper]

Comparing Larry Elison to Adolf Hitler? Hmmmm... you may have a point.

[dheretic]

So you don't think there's anything morally wrong with selling products and services to a government that intends to use them to strip its population of civil rights?

[chilepepper]

I have genuine mixed feelings on this point since on the one hand capitalism is helping many chinese surge ahead, but on the other hand there are undoubtedly many slave factories run by the PLA which make the stuff that gets sent to wal-mart and help keep the repressive ruling elite in power.

my gut feel is that if enough chinese get rich enough to have a computer, get on the internet and talk to one another, that no amount of filtering and repression will be able to stop them from turning into a truly democratic country.

the risk that they do not is of course a war between us and them almost too horrible to contemplate instigated by a ruling elite unwilling to bend to the will of their own people...

a computer and a network are just tools, but if they are controlled by the wrong hands they can become a tool of repression and that is what my nightmares consist of...