Linux in the life of a lawyer

Law.com regularly receives case studies and many writers share their experience with us. Rod Kovel, a New York lawyer who specializes in contracts, supplies a cautionary tale for lawyers who wish to embrace Linux, open source, and free software.

Mr. Kovel writes that Linux and free software "does not add up. Much is promised, little is given, and the disappointments are many." Kovel debunks Linux myths and discusses the true cost of free software and its operation in the law office as a Microsoft Windows replacement. Read more ...

Comments

[Andreas Kuckartz]

Lawyer's Funny AntiLinux FUD Turns Out to be Not So Funny
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080809033233244

[Linux advocate]

I'm sorry to say this, but the article is full of misconceptions about Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), extremely biased opinions and outright lies.

1. Obviously, he didn't actually even thought of the concept "free as in freedom" software, he was just thinking in terms of "free as in beer". While it's true most of the FOSS is also free as in beer, it doesn't have to be. You can get paid support if you want for the most common software, and for the rest, direct contact with developers.
2. Claims that there is no quality FOSS are again based on biased assumptions. I don't know which planet did he get his OpenOffice.org from, but on Earth every OO.o has a spellchecker integrated, for every language that's supported.
3. Mr. Kovel claims he received no support on many forums, such as Mandriva's. This link contradicts his claim: http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=90099&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=6cd3430192e082a8dedd04874a412604
4. I could go on... :)

It is evident that Mr. Kovel has a lot to tell against hype around Linux, and I agree, there's a lot of hype and FUD in FOSS world too. But his article certainly doesn't help clearing that out.

P.S. There is an interesting article on linux.com about a lawyer office start-up which deployed Linux, who probably has quite the opposite experience with FOSS: http://www.linux.com/feature/140930

[cegoth]

This guy is a lawyer? [Sentence removed as an ad homineim attack on the author.]

Mr. Kovel...do us all a favor and go find a rock and get under it. Many of the things you said about Linux are not only untrue but apparently you didn't even try. Lawyer maybe...journalist...definitely not.

[jvi]

>I tried to install Puppy Linux without success -- >and my e-mails to the developers were ignored
You should post in on the forum. The person in question doesn't have much time to answer the questions.

>The Ubuntu forum could not explain why a DVD >player would not eject.
You should expect that it is not possible to solve all problems by a forum. More relevant is how ofter the person is helped en how often it didn't work. Kovel did post many question's on the Mandriva support site and was helped promptly, but he doesn't mention that.

>Open Office does not have grammar check and does >not have an envelope maker

Yes it has: http://www.languagetool.org/.
And envolpes : choose insert from the menu and than 'insert envelope'

>The reality is that much freeware is written by >free agent developers who waive most of the >intellectual property interests normally >accorded them
Nope the developer doesn't waive any IP. He keeps the copyright and that's the basis the GPL can work.
Opensource is often written by all sorts of people. There are Professional programmers who work in their spare time, or are sponsored by a company. Sometimes a small company makes open source of big corporations like IBM.

and so I can go on and on debungkng the rubbish this man has written

[Bill Wallace]

There is a Groklaw entry looking at this article http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080809033233244

What is interesting is that there are many links to a Rod Kovel asking questions and getting answers.

It is sad to see that THAT Rod Kovel seems wilfully obtuse, trying to compare fish with fowl (e.g. getting shirty about a Command Line Interface for Linux not being the same as the Graphical Interface File management for Windows.)

[cegoth]

ad homineim attack...ok...

When are you going to delete this article?

It is obvious that he either decided to ignore his own research or that he is out LYING to make a point.

FACTS.
Kovel in article: The Mandriva support site did not respond to queries at all.

http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=90099

Wow! What do you call him now? Impatient. Oh wait...he posted after the response that he received after his initial post.

And people wonder why we don't like lawyers. Do us a favor and practice law...not IT.

[Rob]

Here's another interesting post from Mr Kovel from June of last year to the kde/konquerer bug list:

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147096

Judging by the tone and the errors, I's say this is the same rod kovel. New user, huh?

Shameful, but not surprising now days.

[steve]

Hahahaha! You're pretty dumb for a lawyer...oh wait..Lawyers ARE dumb, that's why they're lawyers.

[steve]

Haha "I've been working with computers for 20 years"- If this is true then why are you so clueless? You're like the "experienced" retards who work for Norton. Experience does not equal skill. It's because you have no fundamental idea of what a computer is. Your mind is full of limited metaphors and analogies and little else. Learn what you're dealing with and you might have an easier time of it. I ditched windows a little over a year ago and have gone from Ubuntu to Debian testing (currently) in that time with a minimal learning curve. Stick to lawyering dude

[Justin Article Marketer]

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