I read the OSFA guidelines, http://opensourceforamerica.org/guidelines. The points it makes are good points; however, as one would expect from an organization that is aligned with open source, it omits the stronger points that should have been central. For instance, that the use of a non-free program in a state agency is a dereliction of sovereignty, and that any program the state agency distributes or recommends to the public should respect the public's freedom.
It correctly states that there should be no policies to favor any particular development model (e.g., open source), but fails to call for policies to systematically move to software that respects the state's computing sovereignty (i.e., free software). We can't expect to convert OSFA into a supporter of the free software movement, but the GNOME Foundation should urge it to move at least some ways in that direction. Also, the GNOME Foundation should make its own statement of what governments ought to do (for instance, aim in the long run for zero use of proprietary software), so that people don't assume its stand is the same as what OSFA says. _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
