How does this one look? +++++++++++ -> Editor <- Concerned citizens It has come to our attention that state and city governments of this state are not acting in the best interest  of it's citizens. These  organizations claim that they have no money yet they continue to  give  hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not then millions) to software manufactures. They continue to do  this by leasing licenses for the operating systems (OS) and software produced by these companies even though there are viable alternatives to their software and operating systems which are part of a movement known as being 'open source'. This movement is one in which the source code (inner workings of the program) is available for everyone to inspect and to improve upon. While some say this leads to less secure programs, that is not true.  The individuals who write computer virii are are usually young and inexperienced individuals who think they are smarter than they really are (this is why they ALWAYS get caught). And while they are looking at the code with malicious overtones the wiser, more experienced generations are inspecting the same code fixing any security flaws they might find. Because the code is open for all to see it is also open for all to compile (make operational) in whatever computing environment they wish. This means that it is free to use as your software. This all boils down to that for practically nothing you can have an operating system that that runs many top-notch programs that many believe are superior to operating systems you must pay for with the same funtionality. I now would finish with a listing of government agencies that have chosen to       go with open source software to reduce costs, increase security, and to improve performance: -U.S. agencies like the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Naval Research   Laboratory, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Agriculture and   Energy Departments just to name a few -Intelligence agencies in the US, Canada, Germany, England, Spain, France,   and others -The U.S. National Security Agency has even created its own version of Linux,   Security-Enhanced Linux, available for download from its Web site Some state, local, and federal governments that use open source for the same reasons include: -Largo, Florida Largo thought of installing Microsoft Office, but decided that the $100,000 price tag, the cost of maintaining OpenOffice.org over six years, was more cost-effective when compared to $1.5 Million for licensing, installing, and maintaining the proprietary software over the same period of time. http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/08/10/1441239 -Bloomington, Indiana -Chappaqua, N.Y. -St George, Utah Bloomington has found that open source is extremely reliable. They have one server which has been up for more than 600 days. In Chappaqua, N.Y. the ambulance company shifted its dispatch system to Linux. In November, 1998 St George switched it's dispatch computers from an operating system which was crashing almost daily basis, to an open source product. http://www.cioupdate.com/article.php/10493_1497311 -Houston, Texas -Los Angeles -Portland, Oregon Houston runs Web and domain name servers on the open source platform. School districts in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles use open software. http://www.linuxworld.com/story/34260.htm?DE=1 -Garden Grove, California By November of 1995 Garden Grove moved its computers to open source. They now run 24 hours a day and are very stable. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=218 -City government of, Italy Renaud Dutreil, France's civil service minister, said said they would use "open-source" software on some of it's computers, in a cost-cutting move to reduce their deficit. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2809001,00.html -Government of Israel The Department of Commerce plans to move most of its users to the open source program OpenOffice.org http://www.linuxworld.com/story/38223.htm -The German government. In June of 2002 the German government made an open source deal with IBM and SuSE Linux for its federal, local, and, state computer systems. http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/ generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=70026 -City government of Schwäbisch Hall, Germany Open source software will replace proprietary software at government offices to save more than $99,255 a year. -Bergen, Norway Bergen has chosen to replace some propietary computers with open source servers for its schools and city databases and could later put the open-source operating system on desktop machines. -France Bruno Mannoni, head of IT at the Ministry of Culture said they have cut back expenses by replacing its Windows NT and Unix servers with open-source alternatives. http://linux.bryanconsulting.com/stories/storyReader$64 -China plans to  use Linux solely in the 2008 Olympic games http://www.asia-links.com/news/article.asp?articleid=13866&type=56 -Taiwan plans to move half of it's government's computers to Linux by 2007 http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4631 Sincerely: Michael Havens This message has been scanned for viruses by the VEI Internet Automatic Email Spam and Virus Scanner, and is believed to be free of spam or viruses. 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