I have been in the industry for 30 plus years and have used open-source software on all sorts of commercial software. There have always been organisations telling us the sky will fall if we continue to use open source but of course it never happens --- these companies are simply trying to make money. Usually, they take a "racketeering"-like approach; they use FUD to invent a non-existent problem and then try to convince non IT executives to spend money on fruitless but costly audits; "obviously" requiring purchase of expensive management software. When someone like me is eventually called in however, the racketeering argument falls flat. I just ask them to qualify and quantify the expected utility of using open-source software which is hugely favourable to most corporations. It is pleasing to see how evasive these so-called "pundits" become when their bluff is called. There is a reason they wont start with IT in making their play!

When someone says "Please keep these politically motivated stories out of the geek news." I understand the sentiment as a geek but don't agree with it and am in fact a bit disappointed. Like it or not this community has sufficient education to be the defenders of truth. When someone says "2 + 2 = 5" it is not a political statement; it is propoganda so they can get the masses to believe, get them angry and get something from them (e.g. donations or votes or whatever). Thanks George Orwell for your clever insights! If we the educated don't defend truth against the "party" who will? Please don't fall in to the trap of "what-about-ism" and other fallacious reasoning (e.g. like attacking Neil's motivation rather than his argument).