NewsForge: Affirmative Action for Open Source Apr 15, 2003, 22 :00 UTC (7 Talkback[s]) (4947 reads) (Other stories by Lee Schlesinger)
"Last month Oregon, with House Bill 2892, and Texas with Senate Bill 1579, proposed requiring state agencies to consider open source products when purchasing computer software and to 'provide justification whenever a proprietary software product is acquired rather than open source software.'
"Neither of these proposals attempts to regulate private companies. They apply only to government agencies, which of course are funded by citizens' tax dollars.
"There's nothing wrong with asking states to consider open source software as well as proprietary. Every organization ought to consider all the products that might meet their needs. I'm a little wary of provisions that force written justification when purchasing one particular category of software over another. That seems like unnecessary bureaucratic red tape if we presume that our public employees are trying to do the best possible job..."
