Re: [ossig] Enterprise Linux: UserLinux, Debian

[Colin Charles <byte@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 13:30, nsh@pop.jaring.my wrote:

> > The freedom to choose, rather than having a policy, also provides
> > against vendor lock-in (we already hate that with the Redmond company).
> > Why should the government allow procurement of only SuSE Linux, and give
> > Novell all contracts for the next 5 years, when they could allow freedom
> > so folk can use FreeBSD or RHEL?
> 
> Possibly the policy may be not to specify one OS or OS version but instead 
> have a policy, say on desktops, specifying what features/functionalities 
> should be there.  

Nicely put, NSH. I wholeheartedly agree. Getting a nation to bet on an
OS or a distribution is in fact, silly. Policy for what defines:

1. a desktop
2. a server

and so on will be useful. If you can meet the specs, and if support can
either be farmed out, or internal, you're "in"

Don't know what the stand on accessibilty is[1], but accessible software
is important in other countries. By default, Windows is actually *not*
accessible (lest you purchase JAWS). OS X 10.4 (unreleased at the
moment) will be fully accessible, and currently GNOME is too, with
Gnopernicus. KDE folk, anyone know screenreaders?

Also, things like SELinux and TrustedBSD will play a very important role
in "procurement", I should think

> I think discussions like these are useful to the govt's OSS efforts and 
> implementation plans.  I hope that they will engage the community more.

Definitely. Aren't some of them even on this list? 

[1] - Been reading recent Star articles about blind teachers...
-- 
Colin Charles, byte@aeon.com.my
http://www.bytebot.net/
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, 
then you win." -- Mohandas Gandhi


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