Britain's Tories love Open Source (true!)
518462
All aboard the Osbournesource bandwagon! George Osborne, Britain's shadow chancellor of the exchequer, has stuck the Conservative Party's banner firmly on the internet bandwagon.â¦
712904
We pledge allegiance to the penguin, and the intellectual property regime for which he stands. One nation, under Linux, with free music and open-source software for all. Welcome to Brazil! By Julian Dibbell from Wired magazine.
682450
Marten Mickos knows the role open source software can play in business and personal computing.
310675
Like many, I was pretty shocked by the recent Microsoft-EU deal to settle the long-running investigation into interoperability issues.  This was not so much because of the way Microsoft has used every kind of delaying tactic it could before eventually agreeing (for the nth time) to try harder in the future.  My real dismay was provoked by the gap between appearance and reality â a chasm that I think bodes ill for the future of open source. read more
542136
(InfoWorld) - A new U.K. think tank launched on Monday will analyze how open-source software can be used in government and the private sector. The National Open Center, based in Birmingham, England, will be composed of working groups that will study open-source issues, such as the use of standards and procurement guidelines, said Ed Downs, of the National Computing Center, a professional IT membership organization. Unlike other European countries, the U.K. lacked an organization dedicated to studying open-source software, he said. "If open source and open standards can make a contribution, that's what we want to do," Downs said. Many of the innovations on the Internet would not have been possible without open-source softwareÂ like the Apache Web server, said Scott Thompson, one of the founders of the National Open Center. Companies like GoogleÂ and Yahoo use open source to drive down their software costs, he said. Open source helps avoid such trapsÂ as vendor lock-in and higher costs associated with proprietary software, he said. But using open source is fraught with risks as well as opportunities. Many public sector agencies are ignorant about open source, and misguided procurement policies have complicated open-source implementations, said John Pugh, a member of Parliament. Some open-source companies have also struggled in selling their products and services, while their continued viability has been sometimes questionable, Pugh said. The politics around open-source software are bitter, he said. "Open source has enemies, and its enemies are very, very close to government," Pugh said. MicrosoftÂ believes organizations don't care whether their software is open source or proprietary as long as it's the best product, said Jerry Fishenden, the company's U.K. national technology officer, who attended the launch. About 5 percent of the total IT spend in the U.K. is actually on the software itself with the rest comprised of consulting fees, system integration costs, and more, Fishenden said. Those costs are where organizations could make significant savings, he said. Â
337290
I have an observation I'd like to disclose about the Open Source community: we tend to leap into all kinds of things before we have all the facts and/or information necessary to make intelligent decisions. We criticize other communities, laugh at things like directory services from the two major NOS players, talk about all our great applications, etc. we hang on to old notions about a what makes Linux tick. Sorry, but that model Eric doesn't fit any more. The community natter appears to come mostly from people who lack deep technical skills and knowledge of enterprises.
493299
MPs say schools being denied open source Nineteen MPs have accused a government agency of restricting the procurement of software in schools.â¦
62138
Mozilla shows the way to build a successful open-source project, with great results.
458139
The dangers of software patents for free software have always been a hot issue.  But with the news that Red Hat and Novell are being sued for alleged patent infringement by IP Innovation, the matter has moved from theory into practice.  In fact, in the battle against software patents, it turns out that the open source world already has a rather powerful weapon in its armoury â even if it's one that few people know about. read more
593797
Gone are the days when free software could blithely ignore what was happening in the world of proprietary code.  The two approaches are now inextricably intertwined as more and more users and companies choose to run both.  One paradoxical consequence of this is that as free software becomes more widely deployed, Microsoft's impact on it becomes greater.  Against this background, a recent shift in Microsoft's public statements about open source assumes a particular importance.
118772
PC Magazine - Opinion: Microsoft's open-source pledge is a good step.
729297
Call it Pandora's inbox. Late last year, Prime Minister Tony Blair invited the public to post petitions directly on his official Web site, hoping a dose of cyber-savvy would attract disenchanted voters. Did it ever.
315253
There is no doubt that 3 February 1998 was a historic day.  For it was then, at a meeting in Mountain View, that a small group led by Eric Raymond came up with the term âopen sourceâ as an alternative to the description âfree softwareâ.  The question is, will history count 21 June 2007 as another such pivotal moment â the day that Open Source 2.0 was born?
740937
Christopher Lydon's RadioOpenSource is one of the best programs on radio. It's not about open source code, but about radio modeled on open source values and methods. As the show puts it, Open Source has become one of the most talked-about experiments in public media &#151; a civil union of online and on-air communities that trust each other to talk about pretty much anything.  \
192842
A day after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out a missive pushing Redmond&#39;s message that &quot;free software isn&#39;t free,&quot; the UK&#39;s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) said open source software is a viable desktop alternative for most government users.
431542
Open source has many good uses.  Beating up one's competitors shouldn't be the primary one.
725872
headisdead writes &quot;This BBC report has details of the IOSN&#39;s (International Open Source Network) role in yesterday&#39;s Software Freedom Day.