Slashdot Mirror
A Public Funded "Microsoft Shop?"
An anonymous reader writes "I work at a public hospital in the computer / technical department and (amongst others) was recently outraged by an email that was sent around our department: '(XXXX) District Health Board — Information Services is strategically a Microsoft shop and when talking to staff / customers we are to support this strategy. I no longer want to see comments promoting other Operating Systems.' We have also been told to remove Firefox found on anyone's computer unless they have specific authorisation from management to have it installed under special circumstances. Now, I could somewhat understand this if I was working in a company that sold and promoted the use of Microsoft software for financial gain, but I work in the publicly / government funded health system. Several of the IT big-wigs at the DHB are seemingly blindly pro-Microsoft and seem all too quick to shrug off other, perhaps more efficient alternatives. As a taxpayer, I want nothing more than to see our health systems improve and run more efficiently. I am not foolish enough to say all our problems would be solved overnight by changing away from Microsoft's infrastructure, but I am convinced that if we took less than half the money we spend on licensing Microsoft's software alone and invested that in training users for an open source system, we would be far better off in the long run. I would very much like to hear Slashdot's ideas / opinions on this 'Strategic Direction' and the silencing of our technical opinions."
Good point.
Going back to the story submitter...maybe your bosses are just morons? Sorry, I got nothing...parent AC made a good point.
Living With a Nerd
Im sick and tired of this. It replicates along the whole industry and spans countries, crosses the barrier between private and public sectors: some IT managers, the more blindly promicrosoft the more likely, are on the take.
INVESTIGATE NOW.
NO SIG
I see this all the time as I do consulting. I've never heard/seen proof anyone has a contractual relationship.
Way back in the 80's there was a saying: "No one ever got fired for buying IBM"
It's a similar idea. As a CTO or IT Director, unless you want to spend all your days doing analysis on each type of software you might need, you need to come up with rules on selection and support.
And no one is ever going to get fired for sticking with MS products by default.
The problem with this, of course, is that MS doesn't have best of breed products in many cases.
Some things they do work pretty well (Windows, IIS, SQL Server, Office).
While other MS technologies suck (Frontpage, Visual SourceSafe, Visual Studio, Zune, Windows Mobile).
If you are forced to use the sucky technology simply because someone wants to stick with their overly simple rule, you can fight it, but it's going to be an uphill battle.
You're better off picking one or two battles and trying to win those. Then wait for your CTO or IT Director gets replaced, 'cause they probably don't know what they are doing.
(By the way, this is my opinion. Feel free to express your opinion, but simply telling me my opinion is wrong doesn't add anything to the conversation.)
Like most others we are dragged into the politicized software industry, but we are not the ones that caused this politicization. MS & Co are responsible for this, while you buy their products, they buy your political leaders.
Hey, check out what happens when I search and replace.
Interesting, huh? The arguments are exactly the same, no matter which side you take.
The biggest potential cause of action here is that the hospital may have violated state procurement laws for publicly funded institutions.
This suggestion, like every similar one, must necessarily be meaningless and useless, since the original poster failed to tell us where in the world this happened. There may not be a "State" or a "procurement law" or any number of things in ... well, wherever this might have transpired.
We're all born with nothing.
If you die in debt, you're ahead.
So tell me, Redmond whore, how much do you get paid to post here? Or are you just so pathetic you don't even receive money?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.