Re: White House Linux Migration Petition
Originally Posted by
forrestcupp
It would be hard enough for an office to change over, but we're talking about the US government, which is a giant monster.
About security, do you really think that people can't hack Linux? They don't hack Linux because nobody important uses it. They don't give a rat's backside about creating trojans and malware for an OS that a relatively few number of geeks use. If the US government switched to Linux, people would be all over it in no time.
Ubuntu is awesome, but it is not "awesome enough". If it were awesome enough, it would be so great that everyone would be moved to get rid of what they have that already works and replace it with this thing that is so obviously better that it's worth the time and effort. Ubuntu is "awesome enough" for you and me, but not for the masses. Honestly, I don't think it's possible to be so awesome that people like my grandma would be willing to give up all of their windows-only software and setup that they're familiar with.
Also, not every Ubuntu user even cares about Bug #1.
Moving over an entire government's platform is indeed a Leviathan task, and is not accomplished in a day's task, but it can be done starting out small - how about this approach? - Declare a public policy that the government intends to switch over to GNU/Linux. Then mark out a long-term plan - say 10 years if necessary - detailing how and in what concert who shall be switching in order that the government is not brought down; the NSA already used Linux - they developed SELinux after all. If some initial expertise is in place, one small unit/office at a time will, over a long period, achieve this goal - by no means will this be a trivial plan, but it is by no means impossible as well.
Just like a Highway reconstruction project - you do not replace all of the Highway in a day by shutting it down; you isolate small areas and you cause a slight inconvenience to traffic, but the flow of traffic continues nonetheless. Having lived in New Jersey, I can assure you I see this in implementation pretty much every day, and it works! - the small effects coalesce to form the big gigantic effect you eventually want to see.
Also, I duly concede Linux can be hacked - it would be absurd to think otherwise. The benefit here, though, as I said, is that of open ground. If someone can hack your system, you have the same tools to secure your system they used to hack it - at every level. With a closed source system, an attacker who can transparently see the internals of the system (the Chinese Government can, for instance, but it is not my statement that they are in the hacker's garb) definitely has the upper hand - they can exploit what you cannot fix!
And about awesomeness - I beg to differ. Ubuntu IS awesome enough. I have tested this myself - with my Father- and Mother-in-law, neither of who is a programmer or even a technology enthusiast, and would probably not even recognize the words Linux or GNU if they saw it referenced (only the word `Ubuntu' is familiar to them). They do not miss their Windows systems one bit, and they have with Ubuntu what they wanted with a functional system - it boots up fast, has a sleek interface, has all these free games you can download with two clicks, connects to printers and the like just by plugging the printer in, and keeps on running no matter what; their Windows desktop had become abominably slow, to the point they wanted change. Sure they may not be able to or even wish to diagnose advanced problems, but then again, if they had a problem with, say, the network card in Windows, they would not wish to do so there either.
People do not use free software not because it is not awesome, but because a monopolizing OS has managed to set itself up as a standard, and the scepticism that if one deviates from the standard suddenly things will "stop working" is all too powerful.
Ubuntu users may not care about Bug #1, but here we are a community that does, and it is up to us to see it through.
Remember BeOS? It exists in the modern avatar that is Haiku. At the time of its introduction, it was a revolutionary thing, offering a sleek interface like no other. It failed miserably, since Microsoft did not allow vendors to install it as a dual boot - even after BeOS had offered to give the vendors the licensing for free if they did so. Microsoft would not have vendors sell something that tampered with the Windows bootloader - they could install it on the system, but without tampering it they said. The result? When BeOS did ship installed on a partition that the end-user never saw because there was no way to get to it from the bootloader, it faded away as expected.
If marketing were fair play and monopolies did not exist, and then someone pointed out to me that Ubuntu and GNU/Linux are not awesome enough to give up the Windows systems, I would concede, and back off. But that is not the case here, and is likely not to be the case until a huge power challenges this monopoly.
We have tried rebuke in the form of antitrust laws with Microsoft - and we all know how that went. The only next thing possible is indifference - tell Microsoft that sure, they can exist and do what they want to, but the Government is not answerable to them, and will not play ball with something that does not offer the advantages a system with open ground offers.
Last edited by manzdagratiano; April 6th, 2012 at 03:47 PM.
Reason: Minor grammatical
Be formless, shapeless... like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; if you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot... Now water can flow, or it can crash... Be water my friend
Bookmarks