Re: [Gnumed-devel] Bribes a potential threat to Open Source?

[J Busser]

At 7:14 AM +0100 11/26/04, Sebastian Hilbert wrote:
> On Friday 26 November 2004 03:28, J Busser wrote:
> >  Have people seen this?
> >
> >  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/24/microsoft_makes_millionaire/
> IMHO FOSS can never be stopped from spreading. This is because it lives by the
> idea and does not depend on companies promoting it. It's you and me who make
> FOSS what it is because we use it and we give back. Who cares about some
> trade agency. It lives in *my* PC and helps *me* to the job done. What more
> could I wish for ?

I see it as an indirect threat, i.e. it will not change the *minds* 
of those who embrace open source but it can affect what these people 
are forced to use if they wish to connect. In health care there 
typically exist vendor associations, and these can easily take a 
stance that the government should make (for example) Windows IE the 
required browser, Windows the required OS etc. Such has happened in 
the province next to mine (thought I don't know, in that particular 
case, if it is what the government had decided on its own).

I do think it important to be proactive to keep the "playing field" 
as broad as possible. For example, as my local health region was 
deciding on a standard on which to build their clinical portal (so 
that community GPs will be able to access results of tests done 
during an inpatient stay), it was possible that they might develop 
only for Internet Explorer but they were quite receptive to some of 
us asking that Firefox be included on the basis of its better 
cross-platform availability (setting aside arguments on IE 
vulnerability, Firefox being FOSS etc).