239937
submission
OSS_ilation writes:
In a conference call held this week to preview the upcoming LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco IDC analyst Matthew Lawton cited an April 2007 IDC report that asked IT managers about top decision-making and purchasing criteria. The functionality, scalability and reliability of open source software topped the list. "The ones at the bottom of the list were protection from vendor lock-in, indemnification concerns, source code access and the ability to redistribute code," Lawton said. In short, end users today care less about whether they can tweak code and more about what the software does and how. The good thing for Linux is that a growing majority of end users still agree that the use of Linux results in considerably lower total cost of ownership (TCO) when compared with closed source proprietary alternatives.
239033
submission
thefickler writes:
Acer has officially announced it will not be releasing Linux-based machines ... at least in the UK, because there is "no demand" for it. Oddly enough, Acer recently released a model, the Aspire 5710Z, preloaded with Ubuntu, which is widely popular with the open source community; however, it is only available in Singapore.
235547
story
athloi writes
"A report entitled 'Governing the Internet,' was issued Thursday by the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The document, which highlights the increasing environment of internet 'policing' around the world, characterized the practice as 'a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes -- democracies and dictatorships alike -- seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear.' From the article: 'The OSCE report says Kazakhstan's efforts to rein in Internet journalism in the name of national security is reminiscent of Soviet-era "spy mania," and it says Georgian law contains numerous provisions curbing freedom of expression online. Web sites, blogs and personal pages all are subject to criminal as well as civil prosecution in Kazakhstan, and the country's information minister, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, has vowed to purge Kazakh sites of "dirt" and "lies."'"
