I think I’ll stick with the tech theme of the past couple of days, as it’s what’s on my mind.

In a couple of unrelated events, Open Source Software has apparently made some giant leaps forward in U.S. Government circles, with two significant announcements within days of each other.

First, we’ll cover something that’s highly visible to the outside world.  On Saturday, October 24th, the official White House website launched the new Obamacized version.  While some might be thinking “about time” – it actually takes a while to accomplish a major redesign of a large website.  Add in typical government political/bureaucratic “issues”, and I’m surprised it got done this quickly.

Mostly, I could care less about the White House website.  It’s not like I’m an American, or really care about the info the site contains.  What’s interesting to me, from a technological standpoint, is that the site has changed the underlying technology from a closed source, commercial, content management system (CMS), backed my Microsoft IIS servers, to an open source CMS backed by Linux/Apache servers.

Under previous administrations (and no, not just Bush, but Clinton before him), the U.S. Fed has been notoriously gun-shy of open source projects.  Big Business and Big Government likes the comfort of buying from Big Business.  They have trouble, culturally, figuring out why people would donate their time to create a fundamental technology, and how such a “movement” could produce good, reliable software.

Whichever side of the Open/Closed source argument you may find yourself, what it comes down  to, in a lot of ways, is whether you have more faith in “the masses” or more faith in “big business.”

For the Obama Administration to make such a public site Open Source, is a strong indication of where they place their faith.  Not surprising, given how he ran his campaign.

Related, the U.S. Department of Defense Deputy CIO Dave Wennergren has signed and released “Clarifying Guidance on Open Source Software.”

Reported by both O’Reilly Radar and NetworkWorld, the “clarification” is a big deal, and should allow for open source software to make inroads into DoD procurements.

All the clarification says, in essence, is that when considering procurement, Open Source Software should be considered no different from Commercial software.  And that actually means a lot.  The U.S. Military has long held great cultural faith in Big Business to supply it’s needs.  Established, if bloated and expensive, Defense Contractors (Think Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, etc.) usually seem to edge out the “little guy” in most defence contracts.  Which is not surprising, really.  The military is a naturally cautious organization.

Overall, these two events should not be underestimated.  For two such conservative, staid, government entities to consider open source a viable option, speaks greatly to how far Open Source has come in the past two decades.

The first time I used a computer was back in the late 70′s. My dad used to take me with him to his office if he had to work a few hours on a Saturday (I think to get me out of my mom’s hair). He’d plunk me down in front of one of the terminals, get an ASCII game of 21 going (great entertainment for an 8 year old), and then wander into his office to do whatever the heck it was he had to do.

I can remember those green screen TTY terminals surprisingly well. They were hooked up to a UNIX mainframe that, at the time, was one of the most powerful computers in the city. It didn’t take me long to poke around and find other games, specifically Rogue (which later evolved into uMoria) . I’ve had Rogue or uMoria on every computer I’ve owned since.

Through the 80′s I was strictly a DOS boy. Not really by choice, but mainly because that was the operating system for home computers. UNIX was always, in my mind, for real computers, and real geeks new the ins and outs of them. I even resisted Windows until the mid 90s, because that GUI interface was for wimps.

Eventually I succumbed, migrated to windows, and have kinda been in that mode since. Linux intrigued me, but life had moved on, and I just needed my computer to work. Linux, I knew, was a great up and comer, but it was a hobbiest OS for a very, very long time. I tinkered with different Linux releases off and on, but none of them really cut the mustard. I just didn’t have the time to devote to the ins and outs of Linux.

About 3 years ago, that started to change. I caught on to an up and coming distribution of Linux called Ubuntu. It got me at just the right time. I was, for the first time, financially in a position to have several computers up and running in the house at any one time, so it wasn’t that big a deal to dedicate one of them to a “Hobby” OS.

Fast forward to now, and the picture has changed. 3 years can make all the difference. I have 3 PCs in the house, and one laptop. 2 of the PCs and the Laptop are running Ubuntu, and only 1 PC is running Windows. The Ubuntu Linux machines are all “working” computers – office apps, e-mail, coding, image editing, video and audio editing, and on and on. The Windows machine? Basically, it runs Windows so I can install video games. Really. The only reason I’m hanging on to windows is so I can make sure I can play Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Las Vegas, Civ 4, etc.

Why? Because things that are a pain on Windows are a breeze in Linux. Want to share files and drives and printers over your home network? If you’ve got a bunch of Windows machines, good luck with that. It’s a pain. I’ve done it, it’s doable, but don’t tell me it’s easy. Especially if the machines are running slightly different flavour of Windows. With Ubuntu Linux, it’s both simple and intuitive. My Home network is mroe networked now than it ever has been in the past. I’ve set aside a 250Gb drive as the “shared” hard drive, and all the computers at home have access to it, and nothing else. I’ve been able to give away my extra printers, because all my computers now share a common printer.

Sharing devices is uncomplicated on the Windows machine only if it’s hosting the device, otherwise it’s a pain. It never knows where to look. The Linux machines all know how to spot a shared device with the slightest of prompting, and also know how to use it.

And I’m not an uber geek. Really. I’m a half decent hacker, and get more out of my computers than most, but I really don’t have the time or patience to spend “tinkering” just to get something that should be simple, but often isn’t, to work.

I could go on, but I’ve learned from friends and co-workers that really, it just gets annoying when I do. All I can say is, if you have a spare old machine around (a pIII class or better will do), click on the picture below, download, burn, install, and…

Play.

Pretty soon, you’ll end up where I am. Windows will be the quirky hobby computer. All your work is going to get done in Linux.