What is Digg?166 Comments
- decoy26517, on 01/08/2009, -4/+37guess it's true what they say then...
http://i41.tinypic.com/33fbxgx.jpg - fractorial, on 01/08/2009, -8/+38But can it make me a bowl of phở?
- rmxz, on 01/08/2009, -7/+37Makes sense, given the history of intentional government sponsored logic bombs[1] and intentional backdoors[2] that closed-source software has a long history of. I'm surprised all governments don't insist on not only reviewing code for such sabotage, but also compiling their own distros from source to prevent proprietary vendors with "shared source" access for code reviews from giving them a different version than they reviewed.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sab ...
[2] http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/2/2898/1.html - georgelulu, on 01/08/2009, -2/+31Finally the fight against piracy has reached its ultimate conclusion.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -4/+32This is something the entire undeveloped and developing world should do, especially with the "global economic crisis" going on.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -6/+29Could you imagine how much the US Gov could save if they switched to free OSs and applications?
- Crath, on 01/08/2009, -2/+17Linux was never mentioned in this article, its just open source software in general.
- hamobu, on 01/08/2009, -1/+14This proclamation is for servers as well as desktops. From slashdot:
"The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an administrative ruling increasing the use of Free Open Source Software products at state agencies, increasing the software's use both in the back office and on the desktop. According to the new rule, 100% of government servers must run Linux by June 30, 2009, and 70% of agencies must use OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox, and Mozilla Thunderbird by the end of 2009. The regulation also sets benchmarks for training and proficiency in the software. Vietnam has a population of 86 million, 4 million larger than that of Germany, and is one of the world's fastest-growing economies."
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/ ... - ArielMT, on 01/08/2009, -2/+13Neither is support always provided commercially. Some Fed agencies handle support internally.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -8/+19Dispatch Microsoft bribe-laden fixers in 3....2....1.....
- UrbanVoyeur, on 01/08/2009, -5/+15Yay Vietnam! Way to go.
- dagr8tim, on 01/08/2009, -5/+15Notice the word "servers". So workstations are still going to run Windows?
- richgustavson, on 01/08/2009, -7/+16What's Linuxl?
- Renton, on 01/08/2009, -1/+10"100% of staffs at these IT divisions must be trained in the use of these software products and at least 50% use them proficiently."
There's their support. - DBeta, on 01/08/2009, -2/+11Government is much like a business. They get to mandate what their employees use. Freedom of choice doesn't come into it. Now, if they started mandating what users used at home, or what other people were allowed to use, then that would step over the line of freedom.
- spinalcracker, on 01/08/2009, -0/+8Both! Wow runs 100% in Linux under WINE.
- Adelie, on 01/08/2009, -0/+8Windows = Turn all your computers over to an American company with with you have no influence.
Linux = Getting software you can own and control, and neither training nor support need be outsourced.
Linux is expensive, as digital infrastructure is to implement and maintain, but a worthy investment that will actually benefit the Vietnamese people instead of some unreliable off-shore corporation in perpetuity. - Dagreenman, on 01/08/2009, -6/+13Smart and cost effective. Wish my campus could do this. that they could put the money they save to good use instead of paying off microsoft.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -6/+12Not like they pay for software around those parts of the world.
- Adelie, on 01/08/2009, -0/+6That's cause the government doesn't make it purchases based on billboard slogans. Windows is great if you want to do those things people say they do with computers, email, surfing the tubes, printing photos of grandchildren, and other great stuff. But some people actually see their computer as a tool, not a portal to a digital amusement park. Government needs flexibility and reliability. Missile guidance systems, and nuclear launch sequencers, air defense systems, ATC's or anything that... hmm... needs to work ALL THE TIME would EVER risk using something like Windows?!? "Uhh... president, we were ready to take out that nuclear strike, but evidently we just got a BSOD cause the computer was on too long trying to save the nation. Let me just hit the restart button here, and hopefully it will boot back up before we are BLOWN OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET!!!".
Yeah, were waiting for that day. I don't think so. - javaroast, on 01/08/2009, -1/+7Hmm I always thought my servers were computers. Learn something new everyday.
- sibeth, on 01/08/2009, -1/+7Wow, you sure solved the case Inspector.
- behavedave, on 01/08/2009, -1/+7The people of Vietnam.
The people who have contributed toward OSS.
People with an interest in the success of OSS.
People with an interest in the success of proprietary software.
The people who dugg this to the front page.
I would have thought the people who went to the trouble of opening this page, yet again I am proved wrong. - Taiyoryu, on 01/08/2009, -0/+6If you're a Linux guru, that's certainly a job opportunity and chance to travel on someone else's tab.
- maz2331, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6It isn't communist at all, it's actually a very libertarian way of doing things. You know, the whole freedom with responsibility thing.
You are free to use it, and free to modify it, and free to distribute your changes and modifications with only one caveat - you must release the source to your changed version.
There's a general attitude of ultra-protection in parts of the IP community where the ethos is "it's mine, it's all mine, even if it was yours." Sorry, but if you got the base for free, the "license fee" is that you have to play by the rules.
I do my proprietary code development on Windows using commercially-licensed libraries. I also released a couple of projects under LGPL if they aren't deemed of any competitive disadvantage, not likely to generate any revenue, could benefit other developers a bit, and hopefully will attract some other devs to improve on it.
Those who don't like those rules can just build on a different platform, pay whatever per-copy license fees the vendor demands, and have fun.
You have to pay to play, but not all costs are measured in money. - morepowerr, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5So it is a lot like bing middle class.
Bailout: A political term for taking from the poor and giving to the rich. - Renton, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5I know a good portion of the US government uses Linux, BSD, and Solaris.
- raydeen, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6@ xsecretfiles lol you are stupid.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6Its not rocket science. Its actually easier than windows by a long mile. If you have never used it what would you know! If you used it for 5 days and spat the dummy because you could not find system restore then poor you!
- absurdist, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6Having worked for the state of California, I can report that yes, indeed, it IS possible to fire people, even bureaucrats, even those with abundant seniority. All one has to do is document them not doing their job repeatedly. Failure to learn or use a new system falls under that category. You'd be amazed how many people, after two writeups, knowing that a third means suspension and a fourth termination, suddenly are capable of learning all kinds of new things.
- yacinebouatrous, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5actually they're not that poor, Windows cost 20.000 VND which equals about 1 USD, it's illegal copies, you can buy those everywhere i don't think it's about money
- wolfing, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5what are you talking about? since when do employers (private or not) give employees a choice of what OS they'll use?
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4I can picture the North Koreans using cracked versions of Windows, but I thought we were getting on good terms with Vietnam.
- geehossiphats, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5OSS is teh Communism??... puh-leeeze. Go back to fighting your malware.
- geehossiphats, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4dengzhi and digg = worthless troll
- Azathothh, on 01/08/2009, -7/+11support isn't free
- Azerael, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4You've got an errant exclamation mark there buddy.
- Kabloink, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5If they are poor, then choosing free open source software over propriety software is a wise and frugal move. Their limited funds can be used elsewhere where it's needed more.
- Renton, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5You could say broadcast TV is communism too.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4For you - five dollar five dollar,
- MattBD, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4Last I heard Vietnam's economy was second only to China in growth. So they're getting richer faster than India. But that doesn't mean people should be wasting money on proprietary software if free software can do the same job.
- Adelie, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4Maybe it means that all the ***** spewed by the government about the terrible evils of these communist nations are as much ***** as many people have claimed for a long time. These countries like to call themselves Communist because it gives a big "***** YOU" to America, while they are much more free-market socialist. The United States is falling behind in science, mathematics, broadband penetration, not to mention investor confidence. Just add this to the list of countries that in certain areas are more advanced than the US. You joke about not wanting to be the slave to some foreign corporation, and I think the real irony is that outsourcing isn't a very funny joke to a lot of IT people in America.
Just a thought. - rmxz, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5No, but support is often a quite costly component of software, and large organizations may find it cheaper to bring support in house; in much the same way that they find it cheaper to be self-insured.
Support is especially expensive when a vendor forces you to pay for every single installation of a package you might be using; when in reality you might just need commercial support for a smaller number of production systems and master disk images. With paid support on only the systems you need, you can yourself migrate those patches to employee desktops and development systems. - BrokenVisage, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5The article doesn't even MENTION Linux, let alone Linuxl.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -2/+6Not wanting to pay for crap dished out by western companies with their hands in the same pool of ***** as the government. Its well known Vista has a back door.
- ryan850, on 01/08/2009, -2/+6A lot of servers are linux.. it's free right? or at least much cheaper to run than MS. Last I checked the Vietnamese gov't officials weren't swimming around in money bins.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4True, they could be switching to BSD, although the term OSS OS and Linux seem synonymous.
- Renton, on 01/08/2009, -3/+7Whats more important for a government computer; protection against malicious code and hacking, or playing Warcraft?
- ArielMT, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5Go to /. or 4chan/g/ and you'll see how much more intelligent digg is.
- hamobu, on 01/08/2009, -2/+6I read elsewhere that they will switch desktops too
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/ ... -
Show 51 - 100 of 167 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 