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UK Councils May Dump Windows For Linux
An anonymous reader writes "Local authorities in Newham and Nottingham are expected to migrate more than 10,000 desktop computers from Windows to GNU/Linux.
ZDNet has the story. "If this is seen to work in Newham, it has the potential to be a significant project, changing the perceptions of other councils," said Tim Dawes, director of local government technology consultants Nineveh."
...can anyone tell me when we ever saw a large-scale switch from Linux to Windows NT?
Probly becouse its alot cheaper to liscence and very stable and customisable to ones needs.
While it has very good Word im-/export, it's not yet faultless (and won't be any time soon, because of inherent limitations of OpenOffice). And you NEED that import, because otherwise you can't exchange documents outside of your department.
They could also use the excellent CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office but then they'll probably pay more $$$ for the MS Office licenses than when they make a OS+Office deal with the MS sales reps.
Either way, they'll have to solve a problem, now or in the future. Then again, Windows brings its own host of problems.
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Linux is ideal for places like Council Offices -- little complex software beyond Word-processors or Spreadsheets is required, meaning any OS can conceivably be used. What sets apart one from another is the cost, and ease of maintenance/deployment. And, here, it is obvious that Linux wins.
Having said that, this doesn't do much for Linux in the home, or for those who use PCs for anything more complex.
((lambda x ((x))) (lambda x ((x))))
So we see there stories all the time on Slashdot.
But has any government ever ACTUALLY DONE IT?
Ever government in the world has "considered" mandating and using open source for everything (usually around the time a MS contract comes up for renegotiation/renewal).
Isn't this just the usual Linux as a bargaining chip thing all corporations and governments do right before they sign their latest MS contract to try and get MS to sweeten the deal?
I mean has any government actually done the switch? ever?
I noticed clueless people spreading FUD like "Linux is not ready for the desktop" as if they get paid for doing it.
If Linux would be ready for the desktop in the meaning like windows is ready for desktop then we would have to remove virtual desktops, changing of resolution with hotkeys, the shell, the flexible window manager concept... everything..
Maybe it's more like that Linux has a different (better) desktop than windows and will (hopefully) never gain that state of "readyness for the desktop" that windows has achived and which these people are looking for.
With this move from a propiertary software vendor to an Open Source vendor is a great move, and I hope they go through with it. Maybe with some help of the local LUG maybe they can cordinate something with the users to help them make the transistion easier? Hav the groups have a special day that can be posted through out the company for employees to goto to learn more things, or even have the people come in and help people in the spare time? or even get paid? Nothing wrong with taking the Open Source mentality of taking a large group of people and making great products.
Even if Microsoft stopped making money completely, didn't earn another penny, they have enough cash in the bank to pay every one of their 40,000 employees for the next five years.
While true, it belies the fact that even if MS started down that road in ernest, it would mean it's death.
As soon as MS's growth becomes negative, it's stock would tank, which would be pretty much instant death.
I have been seeing more and more large scale "trial" runs for linux in corporate and government settings. I sincerely hope (as I cannot assume) that they are putting the necessary planning and talent behind these transitions. For something of this scale, you cannot simply re-train your current IT staff (once an MCSE, always an MCSE). It requires significant restaffing, rearchitecting, and user re-training.
Anyone who has done a platform migration in an enterprise knows that this is an extremely difficult undertaking. I can't even imagine having to do this for 10,000 systems! I really hope that the community reaches out to support these large trials, and that they are ultimately successful. We all know that linux "can" be successful in this setting. Here's to hoping they get it right.
Thank you for your time,
Frank Russo
Nothing beats the flexibility, scalability and useability of Microsoft Windows® XP.
For starters it's mostly just a matter of opinion. Plenty of user much prefer Gnome/KDE to explorer (which still crashes at least once a day on me). And what about OSX? Most would agree that it beats the crap out of Windows for usability!!
I am part if IT-Support/Admin for an international company (in eleven countries). So far I haven't seen a convincing set of Linux tools to migrate the MS-Chain of Command (Exchange, Office and Explorer). So far there is no Linux package out there that is equal to Office+Exchange combo - or is there?! Another problem is, that many custom (web) applications rely on IE (they won't work with any other browser). Plus we are a travel company that relies on many specialized tools that are simply not avail under Linux. If you have a company that hardly relies on special apps - and just needs office and net apps - Linux is ready to go.
Maybe it is a bargaining chip, but in the case of Nottingham council, they have already made a foray into Linux by changing their mail system from a proprietry system to Linux (it's mostly a webmail type interface so the end users don't see Linux as such). I would guess that it is partially off the back of the large success they had with the mail migration that the change to Linux on the desktop is being considered - certainly it will be a large feather in the cap for Linux.
:)
Richard Heggs, the Nottingham council IT guy who oversaw the mail migration gave a talk on it to Nottingham LUG and iirc mentioned that they may well consider changing desktops to Linux. So there does appear to be some intent to change even if management just want to use the whole thing as a bargaining chip.
Personally I hope they do go ahead with the change as then we can ask Richard to do another talk for us
Cheers,
Roger
Do you have any better hostages?
Microsoft let the cat out of the bag by saying that if you menace them with Linux they will giver you their software for free. So expect a rising volume of incidents such as this while everybody negotiates them dry.
That's ultimately self-defeating. The more Linux is given away the better Linux does. Linux gains more mindshare, developers, and generates opportunities for small businesses as it propagates. This is not true of MS. When MS gives away licenses to maintain marketshare, it is at the expense of revenue. Sure they can threaten to take away the crackpipe if they aren't paid down the road but then the "feasibility studies" start up again. Mind and marketshare doesn't do them much good if it isn't making them money.
This feasibility study is not news. When Ballmer flies out to Britain with a briefcase full of free/deeply-discounted licenses, that will be news. It isn't a "loss" for Linux either. To MS, it'll be the equivalent of a played out one-crop field. Sure, nobody else will grow anything but they won't either.
MS faces a mature market for their only two moneymakers (Windows/Office). Palladium-style lockin strategies won't save them either. At best, they can hold the line a little while longer. They need new products and new business model that doesn't involve making legions of potential users and developers highly pissed at them.
No, the order is first replace Microsoft Office with Star/OpenOffice. At least in enough places that matter.
Then Microsoft Office is forced to read/write OOo native formats.
Further, any "stunts" Microsoft tries to play will, because the OOo formats are known, make it rather blatant just where the problem is.
Having seen the current quality of UK Government computer systems: a poor mish-mash of different systems, some of them decades old, and some of them windows. I got an experience placement at a low level Govt. org recently, at the IT dept, and most of the systems were absolutely terrible. The systems are all different, and the file types that are used to communicate between the different systems have to be continuously converted. Maybe a free system such as linux would be a good way to escape this problem and bring a uniform standard that would be affordable for the UK.
Joseph Farthing
http://josephfarthing.com