[Gllug] OSS

[John Hearns]

Sorry to put the cat amongst te pigeons,
but I saw this on the Register.
(See me? See butter staying very solid when I eat it?)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/25/nhsia_vapes_oss_paper/


Can we really let comments like this stand?
"Open Source code typically comes without ownership, support or
maintenance. NHS infrastructure and information systems are critical to
the delivery of quality care and therefore guarantees on the reliability
and future maintenance of systems are required."


Take a MySQL database - their business model is that they distribute
free software, but you can have it supported. Many other examples.
Also with closed source software what happens of the supplier company
goes belly-up? Cue discussion of source-code escrow of course.


Quick Googling turned up this link for the Rebel Alliance side:
http://www.linuxmednews.com
and
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=index-html&issn=1549-1676
Public access medical journal.
I think this was discussed in the Guardian yesterday. Important for the
third world where institutions/scientists/medics can't afford
traditional journals.











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