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Open Source in Politics?
Posted by
Cliff
on Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:25 PM
from the a-gnu-platform dept.
from the a-gnu-platform dept.
tetraminoe asks: "Spread Firefox has a story about a student at the University of Florida running for student government promising to promote open source on campus. His platform includes expanding F/OSS on campus, using open file formats, etc. Is this the first time 'free culture' has become an electoral issue? Has anyone else made open source an issue at their university?"
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It's a non-issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides, Open Source ought to be about freedom, which would mean that it should be as far away from politics as possible to ensure that everyone has the Freedom to choose whatever software they liked. Now, if the "IT director" in the computer labs wants to screw everyone over by installing a minority OS on all the campus computer lab PCs, that's an IT decision. It ought not be handled at the student government level.
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:4, Insightful)
I use openoffice and have never ONCE had a problem moving a document between here and the Word2000/MS machines at school. This tells me that there could be room for an alternative, especially when computer seats are so expensive. You could take dated hardware and convert them to word processing/web browsing stations for cheap.
I don't know why I'm wasting my time with you, you are an obvious troll. Academic institutions are the places where freedom SHOULD be pushed. Open document standards should be the norm. This doesn't mean no MS machines at all. But there is room for OSS there. It's only a non-issue for those who can't wrap their heads around concepts like freedom, cost savings and portability. And freedom is a political issue. I suggest you take a class and learn what politics really are.
Parent
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
Your statement that "freedom should be pushed" pretty much captures the essense of "free" software's idealistic double-speak.
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
You sound like Stallman. Would society be freer if everyone were forced to remove their front doorlocks?
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:4, Insightful)
You know what a per seat license for Microsoft Office Pro costs at the educational rate? $6.00 and no, that's not a typo. It's 6 bucks, which is usually cheaper than my lunch on campus. Now that's if I want the disks. If I just want a license, it isn't even a whole $1. Retail for the same product is $450 per seat.
You know how much the license is for Windows XP? Well, there is no "per seat" charge. We pay a few hundred bucks a year for the right to install it on as many University owned machines as we can. Retail for it is nearly $200 per seat.
All of the other Microsoft products are priced similarly for education. The whole reason being that if they are cheap enough, we will use them and crank you out already assimilated. Welcome to the collective.
If you want to whinge about Microsoft's TCO to a Universtiy, whinge where it will do some good. Complain about the additional costs of anti-virus "solution", the anti-spyware "solution", the patch management "solution", the anti-spam "solution" etc. Since *none* of these products come from Microsoft, we pay out the a$$ with your tuition dollars to cover them. That's what you ought to be mad about!
Frankly, even at an initially higher purchase price, we'd be better off if everyone had a Mac. Still runs most of the proprietary software, runs Office for Mac, and doesn't need any of the above to remain in good working order 99+% of the time.
2 cents,
Queen B
Parent
My campus dual boots (Score:2)
Re:Replace unsupported hardware? (Score:2)
Re:Replace unsupported hardware? (Score:2)
My college at Cambridge just got some new desktops. They're dual-P4 systems with a gig of RAM each, and they're primarily used for word-processing and surfing the net. Guess how long they take to go from Windows' login screen to a usable desktop?
FIVE GOD-DAMN MINUTES?!?!?!?!??!!
*beats head against desk*
This is while the Engineering department use Knoppix (well, MDP [cam.ac.uk]) workstations that take 5-10 seconds to log on to and are just as usable....
Remember that student government has no power (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
As one of the people who was popular enough to get elected to student government (first a student Senator, then Treasurer in charge of $millions), I can safely say that nobody outside of the CS department here gives a rat's ass about Open Source softwa
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
All good points, but most of your points can be addressed with F/OSS. I'm not claiming every problem/issue can be addressed with Free and Open Source software. But here are some suggestions.
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2, Funny)
Why yes, I am a Democrat. Why do you ask?
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
Re:It's a non-issue (Score:2)
The lab systems and such all run office and such but its not like they pay for it as stated by another poster. There are tons of sun thin clients displaying what looks like a windowmaker desktop running mozilla/f
Zero Power (Score:2, Insightful)
Here's how the converstaion might go:
Student: We should only use open tech.
Administration: But M$ promised us
Student: But, there tech. is broken; it doesn't work as advertised.
Administration: Well, who are we going to believe. You a scruffy Arts student or the knowledgeble M$ salesman that we relate to?
Student: But...
Administration:
Here's one reason: (Score:2)
Has caused me more headaches than anything else. Relatives/friends insist on using it and expect me to clean up their machines. Security is nonexistant, websites are allowed to execute programs on your harddrive (WTF kind of website needs to do that?), and, to add insult to injury, it got bundled with Windows to gain its marketshare.
Oh, and dont get me started on the proprietary extensions to HTML/CSS.
argh! [wikipedia.org]
Re:generally accepted (Score:2)
this is what pisses me off about slashdot as well. 90% of posters bitch about microsoft being shit and then when confronted about it they have no real reasons. I understand that there are some issues but you can't just jump on the bandwagon and bitch, especially when it's not something that's microsoft's fault.
Microsoft's EULAs are Microsoft's fault and provide more than enough reasons for people to bitch about Microsoft.
Re:generally accepted (Score:2)
Guess again.
Do you honestly contend that 90% of the people complaining about Microsoft have never personally been affected by the dismal quality of their products?
-jcr
Re:Well... (Score:2)
In all fairness, that's not a historically accurate statement. Mafia cases have been, and continue to be, decided on wiretap evidence, despite the fact that Mafia Boss X replaced Mafia Boss X-1 after X-1 was sent away on wiretapping evidence.
Sure, they're careful most of the time, but it only takes one slipup. One "oh sh1t, I don't have time to find my encryptor" or "I'm so angr
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Re:Promising things that have already been done? (Score:2)
You do realize that "Open Source" is more than that nifty FireFox browser and Apache web server... Right?
Re:Sounds more like Politics in Open Source (Score:2)
Re:Sounds more like Politics in Open Source (Score:2)
Re:Sounds more like Politics in Open Source (Score:2)
Re:empty computers (Score:2)
I disagree. Once they open up Gaim or Kopete (or, even easier, open up Firefox/Konqueror/some other *nix browser and load AIM [aim.com] or Meebo [meebo.com]), then they'll be chatting on their machines.
Nothing will get in the way of high schoolers/ college students and their IM/MySpace/Facebook/whatever hit of the day. Unless you give them a command line, but if they find naim....