One city's move to open source

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Fear

I'm bemused at how much some people are *afraid* of change. Software is not a religion, nor will Doomsday come crashing down if I use a different platform than you. IT's function is to serve the business interests, and if a given strategy does so, then well and good. Mannheim, among many other organizations worldwide, has concluded that open source/open standards will serve them best. It's their business, why froth at the mouth over it?

To take but one example, linux has been under development less than half as long as MS's platform, yet it has caught up in most respects and surpassed it in others. Technology evolves, and that's nothing to be afraid of. My own shop runs a mixed solution, but is increasingly moving to open source - we have arrived at the same conclusion as Mannheim. Web, web apps, database are running on SuSE/Tomcat/MySQL. Very nice, runs like a freight train. We are experimenting with Novell's desktop solution. At home, I have dumped MS for SuSE 10, and have no desire to look back. It works great, the gui is nice, it's easy to patch and the apps are all free. Why would I want to keep paying for software when there's free, low hanging fruit in abundance, just waiting to be picked? Software is just a tool - go ahead and keep buying the closed, expensive one if you want, no one's going to stop you. Increasing numbers of us are choosing another path.

In any case, I hardly think the world's largest, richest monopoly needs sympathy or defense. They're doing just fine. And so is open source, and a mixed ecology is always healthiest.

One thing in particular bothers me about your post, though. "I'm eagerly awaiting for this disaster to come to fruitation". Why would you say such a thing? Why would you wish another organization, that you are not even remotely connected to, to experience "disaster"? I can think of only two reasons - you're either a Microsoft employee, or a sociopath. You may want to examine your values. Salivating in hope that a neutral party will have a hard time is distasteful at best.

Posted by: Grolan   Posted on: 12/05/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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