I was reading some recent statements about Open source made from government offices recently and it got me thinking……despite all the “rave” and talk about how open source is the way to go for government and blah blah, Are open source technologies, such as the LAMP stack(Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP) , or the newer RoR stack (Ruby On Rails with mySQL) really, and I mean, really taking off in government circles?

There has been alot of noise about Linux (and its comrade applications) and even some projects in our federal and provincial governments, but do you know of any government organization that uses Linux desktops? linux servers? a real full blown PHP/mySQL or Java+mySQL application to do its daily work? I don’t, if you do, please enlighten us…

Talk is cheap..and Linux always makes a good discussion topic..but even NADRA , which by far is one of the more automated government agencies uses Windows clients and Windows based software to do its daily work…and thats a real example of a proper software implementation…

Now dont get me wrong, open source has alot of applications, all over..and its here to stay.It gets us techies excited, it feels like the cool new sci-fi movie playing this summer… I even like Firefox (though it gets slow if you put too many plugins in it).

BUT all I’m saying is, put your money where your mouth is…if you’re using Microsoft, just say it and be done with it. Thats cool too. Please, don’t be Linux and Open source raving when you send emails from Outlook off a desktop/laptop with pirated Windows XP!

Popularity: 2% [?]