[PLUG] Government Sponsored Vendor lock

[Mayuresh]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 08:17:20AM +0530, Amarendra Godbole wrote:
> lost the battle already. It is also surprising to see many Linux folks
> who consider Microsoft as their #1 enemy. Hey, what about Oracle, IBM,

At least on this list there was never a feel of anyone treating anyone as
enemy or anything. (Or so I feel.) All vendors are respectable players in
this ecosystem who have right to do their business.

The issue is, on nearly generic platforms such as web or office documents,
the inter-operability is ignored. And when that is done not by a corporate
but by an agency that is meant for public at large (such as admission
forms or IT returns) that needs to be protested. The insistence is on, at
least public agencies, supporting open standards for at least data (web
pages, forms etc.) and leave the choice of software to the public.

> The right thing, IMHO, is continue showing people how Linux addresses
> their problem, and solves it effectively - vendor lock-ins, money,
> prop, philosophy are not the words that can change the mind of a
> business owner. All he/she cares about "up and running" system, and
> excellent support - which Microsoft (and most prop software vendors)
> provide. I believe in using the right tool for the job - until people
> feel that Linux is that right tool, no amount of philosophy is going
> to change it.

Agree with most of it. Just the licensing costs can be one of the major
factors for common people and small businesses as well  - but only if
piracy stops would they realize it.

The second and right expectation is "up and running". One of the hurdles
in that is a sort of chicken-egg problem - drivers for ever changing
hardware are made available only on large user-base platforms. Whatever
the reason, no fault of a layman to choose what appears to work for
him/her. More and more USPs of FOSS platforms (rather than the "me too"
aspects) need to reach people to increase the adoption and break the jinx.

Mayuresh.