[nSLUG] An open door for open source?

[George N. White III]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 9:08 PM, David Potter <dlpotter at eastlink.ca> wrote:
>
> http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/02/12/tech-feds-open-source.html

This cuts two ways -- currently, many scientists just go ahead an install open
source tools on their systems (including arranging to boot linux on Windows
PC's).   FUD (no doubt spread by commercial vendors) that such software may
contain backdoors  or spying functions (e.g., planted by Chinese hackers) is
another obstacle.

One approach is to require the same justifications/approvals for open
source that
you need to purchase commercial software.  For groups that rely exclusively on
COTS, this could increase penetration of FOSS, but for other groups the paper
burden will make it more difficult to use FOSS

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia