[Novalug] draft email to the chairman of an electronic commerce policy committee

[Beartooth]

On Mon, 9 Nov 2009, Nino Pereira wrote:

> in dealing with the US Government I regularly run into problems 
> with MicroSoft only websites. [....] This is wrong: the 
> Government should not favor one Company over another.
>
> Just this year Grants.gov started to accept the OS used by the 
> Apple and/or the Mac. But, even though their newest versions 
> are based on linux, Grants.gov does not yet seem to be able to 
> work with linux itself. I now find myself forced to get another 
> computer, either an apple or one with Windows. This is wrong.
>
> It seems to be a Government-wide problem. Worse than Grants.gov 
> is the Wide Area Work Flow site (eb.wafw.mil) through which all 
> invoices are submitted.

 	Did I just dream it, or did we actually get a law (or a 
regulation) a year or three ago saying all gummint sites had to 
be OS-neutral?

 	If so, you might want to add in a citation, and ask this 
recalcitrant Chair to please abide by the law of the land.

 	(Such violations are common. Virginia passed a law years 
ago forbidding localities to have gun laws, and voiding them all 
-- and the VCDL is *still* forever having to tell/remind one town 
after another of that fact.)

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Erstwhile Historian of Tongues
Sclerotic Squirreler, Double Retiree, Linux Evangelist