Governments and open source software...

It's quite sad, and unnerving, that governments seem to be so slow to adopting modern technologies to make it's functionalities as streamed lined to make it work more efficiently. With the limited resources governments have, they have to be a lot more conscious on how they use them with the biggest impact.

One of the areas that would help, would be using open source software to build a common platform for the government. Mainly because by using open source software, government wouldn't be tied up to a single provider to maintain the systems they use. They would be able to actually make better use of the resources they got, by actually being free to pick the service provider that gives them the best value for what they expend on their services.

The adoption of open source software by all the government agencies, has the added benefit that all their operations will become more transparent. Not by allowing full access to their data, but on how they work.

Not all the data that the government manages should be made available, since some some of is sensitive enough that being shared would do more harm than good. But, it order to keep them honest, how they operate should be as open and transparent as possible. And the open source software development model is the best way to achieve this end.

Most importantly, by coming to open source software the systems that the government uses wouldn't be at the expense of whatever the vendor that provides the services decides to do with the software it provides. Open source software would give the control over the government agencies, and ultimately to the people that they serve.

At the end, its for our best interest to make sure that governments employ open source at all levels.

There is a GNU/Linux for you...

When it comes to the GNU/Linux distros, and how to choose the one that's right for you, it seems to come down to what you want and need on OS.

There is no single distro that does everything, but there is one that will fit your needs like a glove. The distro that works for some, might not be the distro that would work for you. Because of this, it becomes vital to do some research in order to see what distros are the best fit for you.

If there more than one distro that does what you need, the best thing you can do is to actually try them before you settle for one. Not all distros are created equal, since the communities behind them will develop them with a different set of priorities.

As such, the way they approach things is different from each other. That's why it's important to give a try to the distros that are geared toward the areas you need, in order to find which one is the one that will allow you to work how you feel most comfortable.

This is why I love GNU/Linux, you can choose the distro that fits me the best. And for me, the distro that fits the bill is Ubuntu. The one that fits you might be quite another all together, but we don't need to be on the same distro to reap the benefits of the GNU/Linux community. By using distros based on GNU/Linux, and making people aware that they have a choice on what OS to use, we can give something back to the GNU/Linux community.

As it comes, there is no single right answer. It comes to what questions you are asking, only then you will find the distro that will answer you ask.