[PLUG] Oregon Open Source bill 941 hearing summary

[Paul Johnson]

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On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 02:57:04PM -0700, John Todd wrote:
> So, a good point was made: Why do we need this legislation? 

It makes the default solution the responsible one, which is something
that MCSEs tend to miss.

> There is 
> nothing stopping purchasing agents from choosing open source 
> currently, and in fact open source is used in quite a few places in 
> the state's IT infrastructure currently.

Yes, but anybody else find it ironic that you need non-free software
to listen to streams in a non-free codec to listen to the hearings
which are a cornerstone of our supposedly free democracy?

> There are no "sales people", there is no "collateral", no advertising 
> blitzes, no full page ads in Wired magazine.

I guess the IBM eServer xSeries ads don't count, or rather count as
big iron with Linux preinstalled?

> Everyone else up the ladder of management is often unaware (with some 
> rare exceptions) of the existence of packages that could do the same 
> thing for free.

And can't seem to fathom that people have the kindness of heart to
volunteer their time to make alternatives for free.

> Epilogue: Plus, while this may not have been their choice, the 
> pro-941 speakers let the opposition speak last, which allowed the 
> Fear Uncertainty and Doubt creep into the discussion.  ("I'm not 
> sure...",  "I don't think we're ready...", "We should give this to 
> the task force..." - all of these are obvious bluffs to confuse the 
> legislators, which I see partially succeeded.)

This is a repeat mistake from the first time around.  Why not let the
argument in opposition go first, guys?  I'm amazed nobody remembers
high school or college debate...

- -- 
 .''`.     Paul Johnson <baloo at ursine.ca>
: :'  :    proud Debian admin and user
`. `'`
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fix a system
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