[Linux-aus] Re: [osv-list] This one's big...

[Con Zymaris]

On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 10:19:05PM +1000, Chris Samuel wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> On Tuesday 05 Aug 2003 3:36 pm, Con Zymaris wrote:
> 
> > This essentially means that the last major barrier has been removed for
> > Linux deployments in sensitive-government sites in the US, Candada, UK,
> > Australia and NZ, which following a similar security certification
> > protocol suite...
> 
> Umm, I hate to break it to people, but as someone who's spent a lot of time 
> working in the UK government this isn't necessarily as big a deal as it 
> sounds. Whilst accreditation is useful for systems, it is a very tentative 
> thing, you install a new RPM or fix a bug and your accreditation can go right 
> out of the window.

I think people are missing my point. In this game, there are two types of 
players. Firstly, we have people like Chris, who have professional clue 
about what exactly this new certification means, what its purpose is and 
what its limitation is.

Then there are the other 99.99% of the IT industry who have no clue about 
any of that, but for whom news items like the following in Australian IT:

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6869218%5E15321%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

 LINUX software has been approved for use on the most sensitive computers 
 inside US corporations and government, including those inside banks and 
 the Pentagon. 

are a harbinger that Linux has surmounted any last remaining hurdles for 
widespread adoption within the inner circle of Western governments, and 
are thus pretty much 'good-enough' for everyone else.

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne 03 9621 2377 
Cybersource: Unix/Linux, TCP/IP and Web App. Development  www.cyber.com.au