“A more insidious evil lies right around the corner with the New
Year and that’s a full-blown presidential election year. Soon we’ll
be awash in the political equivalent of FUD from both sides, or
from three sides should the Reform Party choose to put forward a
candidate again, while millions of dollars are spent in the pursuit
of a job that pays a fraction of that.”
“Despite the fact that I dread the mud-slinging that is bound to
ensue in the coming months, I’d like to suggest that Open Source
advocates mobilize now to take advantage of this opportunity. While
a vast portion of the computing industry has become familiar with
Open Source, the concept has still not permeated the public
consciousness. I believe that the upcoming election year gives us a
golden opportunity to really bring Open Source, and Linux, to
light.”
“In several other countries, Open Source proponents are
bringing bills to their legislatures that could require their
governments to only use software that is Open Source. I believe
that this is a sound idea, I know I don’t like the idea of my
government wasting money on proprietary software that locks them in
to a solitary vendor, and I don’t believe that public money should
be spent on something that the public cannot examine. I’m not just
picking on Microsoft here, by the way. They’re certainly one of the
vendors, but not the only one.”