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Novell Signs Linux Deal with Australian Government

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the foot-in-the-door dept.

truthsearch writes to tell us ITWire is reporting that Novell has just signed a deal with the Australian government to become an approved supplier of Open Source software and solutions. This deal, believed to be the first of it's kind, "places Novell on the NSW government panel of preferred open source suppliers. This is the first panel contract of its kind by an Australian jurisdiction that contains provisions specific to open source software, giving government agencies and departments formal access to Linux solutions."

8 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Why don't all governments... by Eightyford · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why don't all governments switch to Linux? Microsoft's Vista release should be the perfect opportunity for government agencies to get out of this vendor lock-in. What programs are government agencies using that can't run on Linux? Open source word processing on linux should be ready for primetime soon, and until then wordperfect is still available. Any non-activeX web app should not be a problem either.

    I just hope that any new government created is not made with Microsoft SQL and .NET. That would be stupid.

    --
    Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
    1. Re:Why don't all governments... by strider44 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah that's great and all, but my first thought was "Why the hell are they going with a foreign company?" With the departmentalism of government nowadays noone seems to be looking at the bigger picture - if they go for an Australian company they get almost half the money back in tax straight away (in fact they'd get it all, eventually, if you follow the circulation of money), and they don't add to the list of imports. I like Novell and all, but I'm sure there would be some great Australian companies that could do as good a job.

    2. Re:Why don't all governments... by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "Why the hell are they going with a foreign company?"
      Grass is greener etc. One of the funniest examples was buying Swedish sonar technology for our submarines at the same time the Swedish were buying very similar technology from an Australian company. One of the least funny examples is that failed managers from other countries are considered superior to anyone local, so we keep importing what can only be assumed to be the some of the worst of US management - who then bring over their friends to feast on the corpse of what was once a successful company.
    3. Re:Why don't all governments... by Baricom · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why does it have to look like XP or Vista? [emphasis in original]

      Because if it doesn't, employees have to be retrained, and retraining incurs significant costs. You have to pay the salaries of both the trainer and the trainees. You have to be accept the decreased productivity of those workers, both during the actual training and for some period after, while they feel their way around the new software. Remember, most Windows and Office users are not technically inclined, so even small changes like renaming a menu option or having a different icon on a button can cause problems. Many users have learned the steps to complete a task, but won't be comfortable doing so if any of the precise steps to follow are changed. Some people can't even cope with the movable toolbars in Office.

      You also have to train the helpdesk or system administration staff to field questions about the new software. If the replacement isn't completely compatible with the original program, then some employee is going to have to convert and/or recreate documents in the new format.

      At first glance, these costs may not seem significant, but for a medium to large company, the loss of productivity adds up to real dollars. The financial incentive is often significant enough that it makes more sense to pay for an upgrade to Office than to switch to the "free" alternative.

      I agree with a poster further up, however...this is an excellent time to cut over to open source if you're a medium or large company. Vista is going to be different enough that it's going to take just as much retraining to get people back to their same levels of productivity.

  2. Overrated by glowworm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While this is a good thing the summary overstates things a little. It is, in fact, just one department of one state. A mere chink in the armour.

    --
    Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
  3. Re:why sign... by mikerozh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... when you can download for free?

    Because you can't download a free support :)

  4. Get it into schools by Freaky+Spook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know how much the State Government of Victoria wastes on Open Software licencing with MS. For the cost of a CD schools can buy open licences for Windows Server Products, Windows XP, Office.

    A primary school I was administering for a while was had open licence copies for Win2K3, WinXp, Office2k3, Exchange 2K3, SQL 2000, ISA server and all that was used was WinXP & Win2k3 Server.

    It seems a waste of money, moving to linux could help cut costs on resources and and put it into what should matter in schools. TRAINING!!!

  5. Novell are doing a lot of things right by gregluck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A year ago Novell seemed to have lost its way with its SuSE initative. The executive who had directed the open source strategy had departed, and much of the rest of the company just didn't get it.

    Then they decided to release OpenSuse. OpenSuse is now more popular than Fedora Core. That won back the devs like me who had not been listening. And OpenSuse is polished.

    This announcement of itself is not that huge. But when taken with the other things they have been doing I can see that Novell can gain mindshare amongst developers and their traditional corporate base. That bodes well for them.