Recently, there have been a couple of tech firm CEO's running for office in America. Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, is running for senator in California. Rick Snyder, former CEO of Gateway, is running for governor of Michigan. If either of these two win office, will they likely be good for Linux or open source?
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Re: American computer people running for office and open source
You'll notice that they both ran hardware companies that delivered computers with M$ installed by default. Long prior to Fiorina, HP used to be quite friendly to Linux. Bruce Perens (a former Debian Project Leader) worked there. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. I have no idea of what role she played in HP's change of heart. I have no knowledge of Rick Snyder at all. I thought Gateway disappeared decades ago! -
Re: American computer people running for office and open source
I don't know much about either of them. I do know two of their main concerns in their campaigning is government spending. My hope is that if elected, they will push to move toward Linux and open source as part of lowering costs.Comment
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Re: American tech CEO's running for office and open source
It is my personal experience that HP under Fiorina is no longer friendly to Open Source. I don't know whether she was responsible for this, or whether she even agreed with it when it happened. As I said I know nothing about the other person. I suspect, however, that in both cases, their stated concern for cutting services would certainly not allow them to engage in a costly (and risky) exercise like switching from "tried and true" practices like accepting campaign contributions from the vendors of expensive software solutions.
There is a minor scandal of that sort going on right now in Massachusetts concerning an influential politico who is "alleged" to have "steered" a data processing contract to a client of one of his political associates. This same lawmaker is vigorously cutting state services in an effort to reduce the budget. Remember, among other things, "free" means "no cash changing hands". Perhaps, I've become too cynical, though.Comment
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Re: American tech CEO's running for office and open source
Yeah, I have my doubts, too. On the bright-side, during the primaries, she paid for most of her campaign with her own money. That may not be the case with the general election. I'm a lot more optimistic about Rick Snyder. He was one of the leaders of a group that seems to have ties to the open source movement. I don't have details. It could have been political puffery.Comment
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