 |
 |
Open source is definitly not about small teams doing the work and then saying this is the standard. In fact it is quite the opposite. The work of a small team is offered to the community to improve and share the rersults with everyone else. This is the GNU licence agreement. Opensource does not necessarily mean free, what it means is that the code behind the software is available for you to see and improve/adapt to your needs but whatever you do must be made available to the rest of the community to benefit from. Do we really want to be locked-in by one vendor who decide the price and how things should be done even when you get inferior services?? Linux is inherently more stable and secure. The different distributions of Linux are made to meet differing needs and it thus offers choice and flexiblity. The fastest computer in the world (IBM's Blue Gene) is run on Linux! Mo Awkati Performance and Management Information Team Manager Directorate of Adult, Community, and Housing Services Dudley MBC Ednam House St James's Road Dudley DY1 3JJ Tel: 01384 815824 (these views do not reflect the council's views or policies) -----Original Message----- From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Keith Patterson/CEXEC/STHMBC Sent: 10 August 2007 14:07 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Open Source LMSs John Usher wrote: "Now we're all moving to Microsoft or Linux - but which 'Linux distribution'? Dell recently said it would love to ship Linux PC's, but will someone please tell it which 'flavour' to standardise upon? It gave up on an earleir attempt for this reason - One version of Microsoft OS at a time is hard enough to support, but multiple Linux distributions!" Dell have recently announced they are selling PCs in the UK with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed - I actually managed to find one for sale on their website last night. They've been doing this for a few weeks in the US. This might be the break-through required for widespread Linux take-up by the general public. Keith Patterson Branch Network Manager Branch Network Team Chester Lane Library Four Acre Lane St Helens WA9 4DE tel: (01744) 677448 fax: (01744) 677082 This Email and any attachments contains confidential information and is intended solely for the individual to whom it is addressed. If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author as soon as possible. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on any of the information contained, and all copies must be deleted immediately.Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses, any attachments to this e-mail may nevertheless contain viruses which our anti- virus software has failed to identify. You should therefore carry out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents.Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this e-mail.