Canadian Federal Government Mulling Open Source? 117
An anonymous reader points out a CBC report discussing a request from the Canadian government for information about open source software and free proprietary software. Evan Leibovitch, an advocate for open source, says the government's interest was spurred by a desire to reduce expenditures during the recession.
"...Leibovitch said he hopes the request will lead to government policies that give 'a level playing field' to vendors of open-source software services, who provide technical and administrative support to companies that use open-source programs. He alleges these service providers currently face barriers when competing with proprietary software vendors in the government procurement process. ... When the government purchases software, it often assumes that it will have to pay for a licence and asks software vendors to bid for the contract, McOrmond said. Vendors of open source software services don't respond to that initial call for tender because they have no licences to sell. But then, the government might ask for a separate round of bids for providing support services for the software, which open-source vendors could provide."
Typo: Evan not Eric! (Score:3, Informative)
It is Evan Leibovitch, not Eric!
Fix the typo in the summary.
Canada Gov use lots of Linux machines already (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Do not bite, it's a gimmick! (Score:4, Informative)
You are aware of something called the auto pact. Basically the deal is that we agreed to allow Canadian makers to be taken over in exchange for complete integration into the north american market. So our branch plants of automakers represent approximately double the number of employees, per capita of population in comparison to the US.
We didn't get the names, but we got the jobs. Canadians used their noggins for what was important to them. And the most popular segment in the late nineties was the Chrysler Mini-van, which was designed and built in Canada from day 1 until today, where it is now sold as a VW Touran.
As for being alone in the G8... Name me a British automobile brand that is still in British hands, and still in business. Show me a Russian car you can buy in North America (nope, no Lada's) Please attempt to find an affordable Italian Car in North America. Fiat doesn't exist here. Your choices are: Alfa, Lambo, Ferrari, ... If those count, then check out: T-Rex, http://www.auto123.com/en/car-reviews/new/2008-t-rex-1400r-road-test-video?printable=1&artid=91050 [auto123.com]
or zenn http://www.zenncars.com/ [zenncars.com]
there are a half-dozen other boutique style manufacturers.
Further, there are many non G8 countries with automobile brands, such as Korea, Sweden, India, China, Brazil, etc... So what's your point?
P.S. Canada's Bombardier is:
#1 manufacturer of train wagons in the world, to the point where folks are considering anti-monopoly rules.
#3 manufacture of aircraft, after Boeing, and Airbus.
oh, and they started out in Snow mobiles, and are still big there.
So on the one hand, there are other G8 countries without meaningful presence in one of the largest auto markets in the world (North America), on the other hand, some G8 countries' manufacturers' are economically insignificant. On the third hand, the presence/absence of an auto brand says little about the overall economy... and many non G8 countries have auto brands. So It's hard to see how that could be a condition of entry into the club.
Re:Green Party Platform (Score:4, Informative)
That "clip" takes Ms May's comment badly out of context. There are many problems with the current leader of the Green Party, but this is comment is not one of them. It is amazing what one can mash up with a bit of video editing software.