On 14/03/07 16:15 +0530, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: <snip>
So when we talk of spreading FOSS, are we talking of spreading the usage of the foss tools and platform or are we talking of spreading the culture of sharing of code? In my opinion, the tools and platform
Good point. IMO, the second is the more important criterion. Though I would not restrict it to sharing of code, but instead ideas.
The other, more commonly forgotten point is that the formats in which data is stored need to be public specifications as well. Locking up data in proprietary closed formats is even more evil[1] than merely using a closed source binary to manipulate the code.
In this context, the tools may be useful to other governments or not. Being able to reuse code would save other governments time and/or money. Note that the code reuse can be done by simply hiring the same vendor. On the other hand, having the code out there implies that there will be competition later when third parties have gotten the chance to analyse the released code.
Devdas Bhagat