{"id":305,"date":"2012-10-08T14:13:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T14:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=305"},"modified":"2012-10-27T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-27T09:36:15","slug":"language-and-open-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"Language and open source"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m intrigued by the way we advocates of free and open source software (FOSS) are viewed and described by the world outside our circle. Frequently, the terms are very loaded, e.g. &#8216;zealot&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.channelregister.co.uk\/2012\/10\/08\/nhs_scotland_microsoft_ea\/\">report today in The Register Channel<\/a> on Scottish <acronym title=\"National Health Service\">NHS<\/acronym> IT procurement and a decision to waste millions on Microsoft Windows 7 is no exception. Mark Taylor, CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siriusopensource.com\/\">Sirius<\/a>, a major UK open source supplier, is quoted and referred to as a &#8216;firebrand&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/firebrand\">Merriam-Webster dictionary, firebrand<\/a>&#8216;s first recorded use was in the 13th century, when it was originally &#8220;<em>a piece of burning wood<\/em>&#8220;. Its meaning was extended to over subsequent centuries to include &#8220;<em>one that creates unrest or strife<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Synonyms for firebrand are: <em>demagogue, exciter, agitator, fomenter, incendiary, inciter, instigator, kindler, provocateur, rabble-rouser<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve met and spoken to Mark on a number occasions and the last thing one can describe him as is a firebrand or any of its above synonyms. Admittedly, he has a business to run, but he&#8217;s also concerned that the UK spending on <acronym title=\"Information and Communication Technology\">ICT<\/acronym> amounts to an eye-watering &pound;20 billion per year. That&#8217;s three times more than is spent on the army. Most of that &pound;20 billion is spent on proprietary software and its suppliers, in the course of which vast amounts of taxpayers&#8217; money are exported to MS&#8217; coffers in Redmond, USA.<\/p>\n<p>Both Mark and I feel that FOSS would be a better alternative and there&#8217;d then be more money for the NHS to spend on patient care &#8211; a far better use of resources. If that makes us &#8216;firebrands&#8217;, then we&#8217;ll wear the label with pride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m intrigued by the way we advocates of free and open source software (FOSS) are viewed and described by the world outside our circle. Frequently, the terms are very loaded, e.g. &#8216;zealot&#8217;. A report today in The Register Channel on Scottish NHS IT procurement and a decision to waste millions on Microsoft Windows 7 is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,9],"tags":[16,19,22,12,23],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-linux-and-os-matters","category-open-source-software","category-tech","tag-english-usage","tag-free-software","tag-language","tag-open-source","tag-tech-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}