“The companies supplying the federal government with Linux
and open source products and services met with the agencies they
served in the First Annual Federal Linux Users’ Conference. Though
attendance was low, organizers and many vendors remained optimistic
about governmental use of Linux….“
“The conference, held on October 30, focused on early or
test-stage Linux applications that would “likely evolve into
enterprise-level deployments.” Exhibitors, however, showed products
already on the market, and most of the government projects that won
awards were already live. It appears that Linux and the government
are, if not falling over each other, then at least coming to
terms.”
“The most promising thing is that up to now Linux has been
deployed in a skunk-works-like manner [in the government] that just
served specific needs and was promoted by technical personnel,”
says Przemek Koslwshi, whose project, a data application platform
developed for six years at the National Institutes for Standards
and Technology (NIST), won an award for mission-critical
applications.”
“[Now] several large IT organizations, like the Navy Marine
Corps Intranet, are really testing the concept and are leaning
towards organized, large-scale projects,” he added. Koslwshi’s
award was one of six given out — along with PDAs as prizes.”