Re: [Ossi] Linux News: Open Source: Linux Use Drives Innovation S/B How Linux saved our lives

On Fri, 2005-05-06 at 10:27 -0700, Timothy D. Witham wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-05-06 at 12:13 -0500, Tom Adelstein wrote:
> > In terms of bigness, you can point to many larger wins than this. But
> > are they newsworthy in getting Linux better known by the government a=
nd
> > for general adoption?=20
> >=20
>     In general you want to make people feel good about=20
> the usage.   I have to say that in your discussion=20
> I started thinking about the TSA being tied into in
> and that wasn't a good thought.  But that's just me
> as a frequent traveler.

Not sure that "feel good" was the intention of writing the article in
the first place. Federal Computer Week solicited an article about open
source in Government from me. What went in didn't come out.=20

Adding TSA into the topic is like cross linking files - and that has
nothing to do with this story at all.

>=20
> > The whole story of ERN has never been told. Who got the planes out of
> > the air on 9/11? Who found the perpetrators? Who safeguarded the 16
> > critical US infrastructures?=20
>=20
>    Again I would say that for many people there are more questions
> on how this was handled that come out negative than positive.   So
> while this piece of it was handled very well the overall isn't in the
> "feel good" category.
>=20
> > People don't know it was a Linux box
> > sitting in an office in Dallas, TX. They also don't know that almost
> > four years later it's still the only Emergency Alert System in the
> > Department of Homeland Security and it's used by the Joint Chiefs of
> > Staff to communicate between the Military and Civilian sectors. It's
> > been field tested by the DOD.
> >=20
> > ERNS also managed the communication for the Shuttle Disaster.
> >=20
> > I promised you that if it had been built on a Microsoft .NET platform=
 -
> > and Microsoft tried to buy it and port it over - that it would have b=
een
> > in advertisements at the Super Bowl and Bill Gates would be pounding =
his
> > chest like a guerrilla.
> >=20
> > But even Federal Computer Week cut out the main pieces of the story a=
nd
> > turned it into a feel good story. If you read the story they say th N=
ASA
> > guys "attempted to" create supercomputing.
> >=20
> > Every time I'm contracted by a serious publication to write about Lin=
ux,
> > I hear this "don't forget Microsoft is our largest advertiser".
> >=20
> > ERNS cost the Federal Government $5000 and saved lives.=20
> >=20
>    =20
> > Who knows what constitutes the bigger win. I don't know. I just know
> > that this story gets buried regularly. It's one that has heroes - Jo
> > Balderas a small business owner in Ft. Worth, TX and a lot of FBI
> > people; Tom Ridge who bucked his CIO and said "put it everywhere". It
> > won the FOSE award for Best DHS application - but I don't see that
> > anywhere.=20
> >=20
> > >From a personal point of view - I feel safer knowing DHS has at leas=
t
> > one way to communicate between Government, the Military and our criti=
cal
> > civil infrastructures. I don't get the same sense of urgency about Li=
nux
> > getting into the financial sector - but I do see that as a major win =
for
> > for Linux.
> >=20
> > It's a matter of perspective.=20
> >=20
> > =E2=80=9CThere is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it s=
o.=E2=80=9D (You
> > can substitute right or wrong if you want.) =20
> > William Shakespeare=E2=80=99s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scen=
e 2=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > On Fri, 2005-05-06 at 08:42 -0700, Timothy D. Witham wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2005-05-06 at 10:32 -0500, Tom Adelstein wrote:
> > > > This article appeared in Federal Computing Week.=20
> > > >=20
> > > > Most observers, if they knew about the project, might consider it=
 Linux's biggest win.
> > > >=20
> > >     I don't know - it seems to me that the near wholesale adoption =
of Linux
> > > in the Financial services industry was a bigger win than this.  I w=
ould think
> > > that a company purchasing around 8,000  individual servers and=20
> > > deploying them within 5 years in a 7x24 around the globe set of div=
ers
> > > applications is a really big win.  And almost all of the financial =
services
> > > companies are in the same sort of situation.  =20
> > >=20
> > > Tim
> > >=20
> > >=20
> > > > Yet, I haven't seen the story in mainstream media.=20
> > > >=20
> > > > Consider that this is a LAMP solution using Red Hat Enterprise Li=
nux and MySQL. It's the only information sharing system of which I am awa=
re that has been working at the Department of Homeland Security.It's also=
 a win for Dell and Sun on the hardware side.
> > > >=20
> > > > You might pass it along to anyone you know in the mainstream medi=
a.=20
> > > >=20
> > > > Also, you might want to pass it along to your local government ag=
encies if you want an Emergency Alert System that proved itself during 9/=
11 and the Space shuttle disaster.
> > > >=20
> > > >=20
> > > > http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Linux-Use-Drives-Innovation-126=
000XFH8B0.xhtml
> > > >=20
> > > >=20
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