FOSS and the election

[Evan Leibovitch]

Tony Abou-Assaleh wrote:

>I guess what I was hoping to find is a clear justification that FOSS is better than proprietary software.
>
The problem with this is that you can't totally justify a position like
this on financial or other empirical means. It's a matter of philosophy,
based on a vision of society and beliefs in the roots of human nature.
This isn't just a matter of Linux versus Windows or MS-SQL-versus MySQL,
it's a matter of fundamental approaches to the role of technology in the
progress of society. At the root of this are fundamental philosophical
conflicts whether innovation is (or should be) based on greed or a
desire for social progress. Karl Marx versus Ayn Rand, three rounds, no
submissions....

It's one thing to ask whether one particular circumstance can be better
served by FOSS or proprietary, and I agree that neither approach is a
best fit in all cases. It's quite another to define a social direction
by favouring one approach to be default as a matter of public policy.

>DRDC developed a report that became the GoC policy on FOSS. This particular policy was based on facts and detailed evaluation and analysis. Hence, the current GoC policy on FOSS is based on fact.
>  
>
Only to a point. This is from Treasury Board, which means that
minimizing cost is an absolute key factor. Other factors, such as job
creation or international competitiveness or universal access, are
introduced by politicians not bureaucrats and may not have been part of
this evaluation. The staff that make such reports are given specific
frames of reference and build upon those. There are facts and research
in use, to be sure, but they're layered on top of core premises that may
be as much based on religion as anything else.

The FSF maintains that the big differences between the "open source" and
"free software" movements is that the former stresses practical benefits
of FOSS while the latter maintains that it's not just practical but also
the ethical way to do things. Bureaucrats handle the practical and leave
it to politicians to handle the ethics. Trying to justify ethical issues
based on economics or measured facts is usually an exercise in futility.

- Evan

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