Support the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Bill

[mannyamador]

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Support the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Bill

The Free/Open Source Software Act of 2006 (aka FOSS Bill) filed by Teodoro Casino (Bayan Muna) promotes open source, and that is beneficial to the government and eventually to Filipinos in general. The benefits of FOSS are quite well known, and if the govefrnment uses it, it will save millions in licensing fees, upgrade costs, and maintenance.

Here's a link tot he text of the FOSS Bill (HB 5769)
http://www.bayanmuna.net/?p=398

The current software acquisition environment for the government is NOT a level playing field. Proprietary vendors are able to leverage the current dominance of proprietary platforms to sell even more proprietary software. They also encourage fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about FOSS by claiming FOSS will either not be able to match proprietary software features, or by exaggerating the effort required to move to FOSS. The ignorance of many in government about FOSS also plays into the greedy hands of these FUD-mongering proprietary software peddlers.

The bottom line is that FOSS needs a little help, and that is what this bill does.

The bill mandates a preference for software that gives certain freedoms to users and developers (this is the result of the different FOSS licenses). It does not favor any technology, platform, vendor, or any source of software. It does favor the FREEDOMS given by the FOSS licenses, and there's no reason why this should not be the case. The freedoms granted by a software license is just as good a criterion for evaluating software as any other.

The Philippines stands to benefit from the FOSS bill. Congress should pass it ASAP!!!

[BadDudes]

hmmm .. this is nice! ....going to stickied this for a while

[Uzumaki Naruto]

nice

[vcle_skullkid]

wow nice!

[goryo13]

where do we get this stuff? this is better instead of buying pirated OS and Office apps

[mannyamador]

You can download the software from the internet.

You can get the FREE version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (called CentOS) at: http://www.centos.org

You can get FreeBSD at http://www.freebsd.org

You can get OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org

Lots more. Check out the latest FOSS at http://www.frshmeat.net

[elex]

http://www.bayanihan.gov.ph/

[mannyamador]

BadVista.org: FSF launches campaign against Microsoft Windows Vista

Boston, MA—December 15, 2006—The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today
launched BadVista.org, a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the
harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and
promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and
privacy rights.

"Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall
regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using
a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is
already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But
the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more
restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how
to resist them, and why people should care", said FSF program
administrator John Sullivan.

The campaign will organize supporters into effective and unusual actions
drawing attention to this daylight theft of computer users' rights,
aggregate news stories cutting through the Vista marketing propaganda, and
provide a user-friendly gateway to the adoption of free software operating
systems like gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org).

Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF said, "Whilst Microsoft embarks
upon its largest ever product launch, its marketing dollars will be spent
in an effort to fool the media and user community about the goals of
Vista. Our campaign will ask the important questions. Can you set yourself
or your company free? Can you ever be free from Microsoft? As with our
campaign against Digital Restrictions Management, we aim to demonstrate
that technologists can be social activists, because we know the harm that
Vista will cause".

Among other harms, BadVista.org will focus on the danger posed by
Treacherous Computing in Vista. Commonly called Trusted Computing in the
industry, it is an attempt to turn computers from machines controlled by
their user into machines that monitor their user and refuse to operate in
ways that manufacturers don't authorize.

Supporters can sign up to receive more information and participate in the
campaign at http://badvista.org.

_________________________________________________

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in
freedom) software—particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux
variants— and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to
spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use
of software. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important
source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can
be made at http://donate.fsf.org. They are headquartered in Boston, MA,
USA.

Press Contact: For more information about this announcement or to schedule
an interview, please contact Peter Brown or John Sullivan at
+1-617-542-5942 or <pr@fsf.org> <pr@fsf.org>.

[Tin_Tin]

lets support open source...

[Uzumaki Naruto]

agree!