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Open Source: It's not just cheap!

I suppose it's inevitable that when you talk about Open Source software to people for the first time the thing they focus on is that it is generally given away for free. "How do you make money if you don't sell your software?" Is the usual skeptical question. "What's the catch?"

As people start to buy into Open Source the line changes to something more akin to, "Well, we tried to warn you that you're crazy but if you're going to ignore that I don't see why we shouldn't benefit from your misplaced hippy principles."

Happy Birthday Debian

Today marks the seventeenth birthday for Debian, a free operating system based on Linux and GNU.

Debian has successfully grown and developed into being one of the strongest Open Source Operating Systems available. For a distribution which is produced by volunteers rather than with commercial backing, this is a great achievement, and a testament to Open Source development,

Public sector ICT cuts - they do not have to hurt - ComputerworldUK

This week's Economist notes that in the current climate of public sector austerity in the UK, there are two strategies under way by the various interest groups.

The first is to assess rationally and realistically how to comply with the need to cut budgets, and to come up with a plan.

The second is to expend energy on arguing why one is a 'special case' and should therefore be excluded from the cuts.

Socitm, the association for ICT professionals in the public sectors, has taken the second approach.

Time for school IT to teach Open Source - ComputerworldUK

The Royal Society has just warned that Information technology lessons in UK schools are so dull they are putting pupils off the subject, and of course the idea of a career in IT. So no surprises there then.

Proprietary Software vs Security

It's been a long time since I've had to install a piece of proprietary software because generally my needs are met entirely by Debian's packages or at very least by tools distributed as source. Recently though I needed to temporarily install something for interoperability reasons in order to extract some information from an opaque blob of data.

Repeal sections 11–18 of the Digital Economy Act 2010

Sections 11–18 of the Act were pushed forward on the basis of questionable figures and assumptions, will not significantly achieve their stated ob jectives of reducing copyright infringement, and are liable to have serious unintended consequences.

Open Source: The Capitalists' Choice

I often hear people referring to Open Source and Free Software advocates jokingly, or not so jokingly, as "communists" or "hippies". After all, giving away your "intellectual property" for the greater good may be a nice theory in some ideal world, but it rather flies in the face of capitalism, doesn't it?

Cuts, government IT and putting lipstick on a pig -ComputerworldUK

Britain faces an unprecedented age of financial restraint - and with that come huge demands on Government to reduce costs and deliver services for much less.

Debate is already turning to not just the level of cuts, but which services government should cease to offer altogether

Radical reform necessarily requires significant change to existing business process and systems, not just minor incremental change and tinkering around the edges.

Selling Open Source software into the Public Sector

Why is it so hard to sell Free, Open Source solutions into the Public Sector especially Local Authorities?

You would have thought that it would be easy - after all FOSS solutions for services such as e-mail, collaboration software, and learning platforms are demonstrably cheaper and more effective than their proprietary equivalents.

You would also be encouraged by the Government mandating that all public sector IT procurements show that due consideration has been given to Open Source solutions alongside proprietary ones.

Open Source, P2P and the Pirate Party

The Swedish champion of civil liberties and scourge of outdated monopolist Copyright and Patent Laws has made it to the UK. The Pirate Party, famous for losing a recent P2P file-sharing trial, is bloodied unbowed and recruiting.

...good timing too. Riding roughshod over the Minister for Transformation Tom Watson, the First Secretary of State, Lord Peter Mandelson recently announced that whole families will have their broadband access cut if any one of them is caught illegally sharing files.

What?