Time for Canada's government to open up, Jun 17, 2009

Using the open-source model, whoever wins a public IT contract could use existing open software as a starting point, and the finished product would be open-source as well. That would allow government departments to easily modify and customize software when they need to, and even open them up for governments elsewhere to use for their own purposes.

Whatever the Swiss government thinks, there are plenty of users in Switzerland who know that open source provides a viable alternative route.

Virtualization is a key technology for Linux vendor Red Hat which earlier this year outlined a broad new virtualization roadmap including new products and technologies. Those efforts are now starting to bear fruit, with Red Hat this week indicating that it's now entering the beta phase of deployment.

Macs vs. PCs vs. Linux arguments are dominating two mailing lists I'm on. The vitriol may be slightly less than in the past, but many of the same attitudes exist with subjective arguments trumping logic on both sides. While I can ignore fanatics on a mailing list, owners and managers in businesses have to coerce all sides of the operating system wars into working together.

I can talk until I'm blue in my space about the technical advantages of Linux and open-source software. Forget about that for now though. Let me give you a reason for your office to use them that may strike home: It can save jobs, including, just maybe, your job.

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