[aclug-L] Re: open source in state governments

[jeffrey l koehn <caveman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Saturday 15 March 2003 08:33 pm, you wrote:
> Texas and Oregon now have a bill in the Legislature to require
> the consideration of open source and
> open standards as part of the acquisition of software. Texas and
> Oregon, like many other states, has a budget crisis going on.

Even if these bills pass in Texas and Oregon and even though
all states are in a budget crisis, all indications are that most if 
not all state governments will continue to follow the M$ road
to hell for the next couple of years. It took a while for this
progression to happen and it will take some time to reverse
this process.
*Common Sense* is scarse these days.
I think after Linux and Open Source has moved well into businesses,
banking, manufacturing, etc, then state governements will be
in a panic to do something which of course will cost a lot of money
because they will have to hire the ones who have been in touch
with the changing times.
Of course I could be wrong, and people in state governments
all of a sudden see the light.
On the other hand, the direction that Microsoft is taking
and the proliferation of the Linux GPL'd Kernel and
GPL'd Open Source Apps which are contributed 
and improved by Universities, Businesses, Individuals, 
Manufacuring,etc, lead me to believe that in the end
the business/tech model of the future will be using GPL'd
software as the *base architecture* on which to build, use and
manufacture products which will in turn may or may not
be proprietary. This of course is starting to happen so
there are many people that have come to this conclusion
but I don't think it is well documented because most businesses/
people in this country want to be ahead of the game
and be the first/best in a new market of products services.
 I'm sure there is somebody on this list or in a University who
can/has put this into better words.

jeffrey l koehn
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