Linux Foundation launches European division

The body behind the biggest open source project in the world has opened a European division. Sometimes, attending a European trade show – even virtually – can give you a slight feeling of being a supporting feature, with the main act happening in North America, usually some time earlier. So the launch of the Linux Foundation …

[AusMatt]

Columbro sounds like a play on th 70s detective Columbo...

[steelpillow]

The public sector

The public sector is a very, very different world from hi-tech commerce. It lives, breathes and dies by tickboxes.

"We are not allowed to spend public money on stuff that is not focused on our own citizens."

"We do not routinely budget public money or resources for charities, as they have their own sources of income."

"Our thirty-five-year-old shortlist of approved IT suppliers does not include Open Source. We have no resources to revisit that list in the foreseeable future."

"Any code we write is Government Copyright. We have no legal mechanism for releasing that copyright to anybody else. Thus, your open-source license makes it impossible for us to release our patches to you."

And so on.

You have to find, get to know, and pull the political levers to get those tickboxes changed. Box by box, department by department, nation by nation. This is not a notable area of expertise for F/LOSS developers, foundations or lawyers. I have known it happen, but only in a limited way - and it took years of patient graft that few state-employed developers can afford to indulge in. Frankly, to make it happen the Linux Foundation and its ilk need to create political arms and learn to play the political game.

[Will Godfrey]

Re: The public sector

Hmmm.

I suspect that any significant inroads into politics would alienate a lot of developers.

[steelpillow]

Re: The public sector

There you go, you see. Geeks even have trouble distinguishing between being a politician and seeking to educate, inform and influence politicians. Way to go, folks.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: The public sector

-> "We do not routinely budget public money or resources for charities, as they have their own sources of income."

Overseas aid is by definition not focused on a country's own citizens. In the UK that is billions.

[steelpillow]

Re: The public sector

Overseas aid is, above all, a political tool - as you must well know, VoiceOfYourOwnTruth. But do tell, which governments are spending overseas aid on F/LOSS projects in other countries? Your favourites, by any chance?

[Lars]

Re: The public sector

The public sector will use companies as before and those companies could well use more open source.

The public sector uses open source today already, should they have anything to do with the internet, the cloud or super computing.

I can understand that SAP is there very well. And perhaps there is in Europe some more energy for open source that could be harnesst more easily like this.

[steelpillow]

Re: The public sector

The problem with the public sector is getting it to contribute to the code base. That is a much harder nut to crack.

[Zolko]

Re: The public sector

Any code we write is Government Copyright

at least for the NASA it's not true: anything they write is public domain. See Nastran for example