<html>
<body>
<br>
There are exceptions to the rule...<br><br>
For instance, if an RFP contained requirements that only an open-source
solution, or a solution written from scratch would provide the open
source solution may be accepted on the grounds that it is the least cost
solution.<br><br>
HOWEVER!<br>
One may have to file protest after protest after protest in order to win
the award of the contract.<br><br>
For instance... Where I work there is absolutely no open-source
allowed on production or development systems. However for security
purposes certain open-source solutions are permitted. This is
because of the fact that where security is concerned open-source tools
are often used to find the vulnerabilities. Hence one must use
those very same tools in order to identify the vulnerabilities that a
would-be hacker would find.<br><br>
On some production systems Perl is used for various things. This is
justified by the fact that it is bundled into Solaris by Sun
Microsystems. However in Solaris 8 at least it looks as if the
version bundled was configured and built by vandals.<br><br>
All in all, it comes down to the evaluation team for the award of the
contract. However the evaluation team will have to justify to the
OIG (Office of Inspector General) exactly why open source is
justified. That can happen, especially if you force the evaluation
team to come to the conclusion that it's easier to justify open source to
the OIG than to perpetually refute the protests being filed of their
award.<br><br>
Germany on the other hand is a different animal entirely. They've
embraced open source, but I think that the U.S. will take a "Let's
wait and see." approach. The U.S. Govt is also much larger and
tends to move at the speed of a glacier when it comes to adopting
"new things" where a risk is involved. They tend to err
on the side of caution.<br><br>
At 09:10 PM 11/1/2004, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Its hard to get to the bottom of
this. I've seen things on the internet saying open source in all forms is
banned. I've also seem lots of things about deployments in the US
government in general and the DoD in particular. I guess like most things
the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing.<br><br>
I think the main thing holding back government adoption of free things in
most markets is the rather small size of a 5% back-hander on a free
solution.<br><br>
Steve<br><br>
<br>
Karl J. Vesterling wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">At 06:51 PM 11/1/2004, you
wrote:<br>
[snip for brevity[<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> <br>
So the U.S. Govt has never used linux anywhere?
Wow.</blockquote><br><br>
Not in most installations, and definitely not in DoD facilities.<br>
The "Office of Inspector General" has deemed open source to be
"Verboten".<br><br>
That's going to become an interesting situation when Solaris goes open
source...<br>
<a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1647198,00.asp" eudora="autourl">http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1647198,00.asp</a><br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">*Question:* Why isn't there a
commercial solution available in some cases?<br>
*Answer:* What company in their right mind would engineer a competing
product to a solution that costs $0.00 ???<br>
<br>
Again making the mistake that open source equates
non-commercial.</blockquote><br><br>
Once again... The Office of Inspector General has deemed (any and
all) open-source to be forbidden.<br><br>
Whether it be commercial of non-commercial open-source software it's
forbidden.</blockquote><br><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Asterisk-Users mailing list<br>
Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com<br>
<a href="http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users" eudora="autourl">http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users</a><br>
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:<br>
<a href="http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users" eudora="autourl">http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Best Regards, <br>
Karl J. Vesterling<br>
<b>E-Mail:</b> kjv@ken-ton.com<br>
<b>Yahoo Messenger:</b> karl_vesterling<br>
<b>ICQ: </b>1548052<br>
<b>AOL Instant Messenger:</b> n2vqm<br>
<hr>
<b>Telephone:<br>
Washington DC:</b> (202) 448-3009 Extension 0<br>
<b>Annapolis MD:</b> (240) 524-6706 Extension 0<br>
<b>Seattle WA:</b> (360) 516-1822 Extension 0<br>
<b>Niagara Falls NY:</b> (716) 286-9175 Extension 0<br>
<b>Buffalo NY:</b> (716) 608-1121 Extension 0<br>
<b>United Kingdom:</b> 0870 3403428 Extension 0 </body>
</html>