
A Year in the Life of an Open Source Lead - robin_reala
https://www.annashipman.co.uk/jfdi/a-year-in-the-life-os-lead.html
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claudiulodro
Interesting read. I think commercial open source where you are actually trying
to monetize some sort of open source software is very different than
governmental open source. There is some overlap (it's important to be
transparent, blog and build community), but the "business" model is completely
different.

That being said, I really like the trend of governments moving towards open
source. If the taxpayers are paying for software development they should be
able to see the source and use the software. I wonder if we'll ever see a
popular open source framework maintained by a government. That would be
interesting!

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yters
A lot of government funding goes towards Microsoft products. I think Microsoft
should open source their products.

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robin_reala
Certainly at GDS I can’t think of a single Microsoft product that was in use
beyond some VMs for testing browsers and assistive technology.

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yters
I was in the AF, and everyone uses Windows and MS office. So much so that DoD
requirements influenced some of the features of MS products.

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thomastjeffery
The biggest reason government should use free software is interoperability.

Right now, software written for government bodies is incompatible, and
therefore inefficient.

Free software has the advantage of mutability, you can change the software to
meet your specific needs.

Closed source software must be changed by its original authors, often
contractors, meaning it ends up staying incompatible with the rest of the
ecosystem.

