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France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

social.numerique.gouv.fr

61–70 of 232 posts

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#61
post #32

I'd love to see a coordinated drive to get most off the world onto opensource and off Windows/MacOS/iOS/Android as well as databases etc. American tech companies are making billions off these products that really are simple and could be replaced.

What a time to be alive to see Android on that list.

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will take time but yes. There are already numerous case studies. Libre office is already running on more than 500k gov computers. Anecdotical story, as a researcher I worked with a few French PhD students and they tend to send me documents Libre documents and spreadsheets.

Oh then it’s dead. LibreOffice never Just Works™. Ideological changes like this only work if they’re painless for the hoi polloi.

LibreOffice UI is so awful I'm 90% convinced there is a Microsoft plant that actively disrupts progress.

I don't lurk the github, so I'm just assuming there are a few accounts that disagree with UI improvements just to kill time and fake debate.

But yeah that UI is just awful.

Further, you mention any UI issue on the subreddit and you get banned. Yeah...

Really a shame, Fedora + Google's Office Suite has been a near complete replacement for me. Although Sheets could be improved a bit.

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#63
post #58
post #31

As an American, this sort of brings back into question for me thoughts of, "What should constitute a public utility in a Capitalism society?" Upon doing some cursory research (so cursory that I'm afraid to provide links), it occurs to me that I was maybe under a false impression that there _are_ any nationwide public utilities in the first place. We basically have: * The Federal Reserve * The Interstate Highway Syste…

Federal Aviation Administration keeps the skies a public utility. Federal Communication Commission keeps part of the wireless communication spectrum open to the public. National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management keeps some public land available for everyone to use. The Library of Congress. National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service probably satisfy "Public Utility" as much as Medicaid. Federal Eme…

Yeah, these examples are all challenging in that they tend to represent more governance/funding than infrastructure. Out of both of our lists I think the USPS, highways, parks and land are the most infrastructure-related things. Of course these are all sort of weak analogues since software services are their own animal, but the fact that it’s a choice between governance, funding or a pittance of infrastructure projects I suppose makes the point.

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#64
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually targeting Apple since both Google and Microsoft have their own models.

I'm a little confused by the context of this since I don't speak French, but it seems like you're unfamiliar with the OpenELM family of models. https://huggingface.co/apple/OpenELM

that looks like a dinosaur now

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#65
The government getting interested in open source should terrify us all. The UN formally defining principles for what it means is a soft form of regulation that's only going to get more authoritarian over time. Traveling down this road, we're going to find ourselves living in a world where you're only allowed to share software if (1) you're working for a corporation, or (2) you're working for the government. Because (1) and (2) will have their lives managed and regulated and won't do anything they're not told to do. Anyone who wants to be a hobbyist who writes code of their own free will and shares it on GitHub just for fun will be criminalized, just like anyone today who wants to do farming just for fun is criminalized. Once they make these principles part of the law, it'll grow like the tax code, and be enforced. You used C and didn't write documentation? You're outlawed! Believe me when I say the government is not here to help. Code is speech and there'll be no freedom left the day our right to share what we've written in our preferred language in our own preferred way is taken away.

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#66

France has an undeserved bad reputation for this stuff. As a french citizen, I'm amazed to see how easy it has become to do anything administrative online, with great tools such as France Connect that allows a single login method for any administrative tool.

Do you happen to now if France has public jobs for software devs or is it more like a governmental agency (which I guess is also a public sector job but feels different)?

AFAK each agency/entity manages its staff and can hire accordingly.

For the big project, my mental image is a public call for proposal, followed by one of the bigger groups (e.g. Cap Gemini) coming up with an initial solution that gets deployed. From there it becomes a mix of the public agency staff doing the day to day operation and maintenance, potentially including small bug fixes and updates, and external contracting again for wider range feature additions or changes like system wide security compliance.

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh then it’s dead. LibreOffice never Just Works™. Ideological changes like this only work if they’re painless for the hoi polloi.

LibreOffice UI is so awful I'm 90% convinced there is a Microsoft plant that actively disrupts progress. I don't lurk the github, so I'm just assuming there are a few accounts that disagree with UI improvements just to kill time and fake debate. But yeah that UI is just awful. Further, you mention any UI issue on the subreddit and you get banned. Yeah... Really a shame, Fedora + Google's Office Suite has been a near…

Talk is cheap, did you create any PRs for the suggested changes?

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#68
post #65

The government getting interested in open source should terrify us all. The UN formally defining principles for what it means is a soft form of regulation that's only going to get more authoritarian over time. Traveling down this road, we're going to find ourselves living in a world where you're only allowed to share software if (1) you're working for a corporation, or (2) you're working for the government. Because (…

[deleted]

Re: France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

#70
post #65

The government getting interested in open source should terrify us all. The UN formally defining principles for what it means is a soft form of regulation that's only going to get more authoritarian over time. Traveling down this road, we're going to find ourselves living in a world where you're only allowed to share software if (1) you're working for a corporation, or (2) you're working for the government. Because (…

This comes across as more than a little bit fanciful, nevertheless I agree with the sentiment. There's an awful lot of people on the sidelines with their eyes on gaining control over software with intentions that are not at all reflected by what they state publicly. We do not need some political body to come "help", they have no understanding of what makes this work in the first place and nothing of value to contribute.
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