Linux Format forums

kamrananvaar · LXF regular Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:25 am Posts: 383

The first glint of hope for openness in the UK government begins to sparkle:
From today we are inviting developers to show government how to get the future public data site right - how to find and use public sector information.
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-light-on-yonder-ukgov-site-breaks.html

kamrananvaar · LXF regular Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:25 am Posts: 383

UK needs to be more open to open source
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/30/uk-government-open-source-software

johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

I once heard that IBM reckoned it would take 5 years for a company committed to open source to migrate completely. Since governments only normally get four years to put their policies into practice, it will never be a government policy for fear the next government will benefit from it - and the costs of migration, e.g. retraining, are primarily up-front; so not really welcome in the current climate.

towy71 · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject:

nordle · LXF regular Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:56 pm Posts: 1497

My previous employment had guys/gals using very complex Excel models with loads of linked spreadsheets and resulting summary data embeded in Word. Yes they could be moved over, but the time it would take would be huge and everyone is running so close to the bone these days that there just isn't the spare capacity to achieve this, however much it is a good idea.
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johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

The costs of migration arise because, while most MS Office to OpenOffice is fairly straightforward, Access to whatever Linux combination you use isn't and there are many other programs which are sufficiently different that failing to plan for the move and identify training needs could be very costly.

This was all studied in the 1980s because companies then assumed that there would be little need to train staff and ended up losing business because their staff hadn't had time to learn enough about the new software to be able to use it effectively.

IBM doesn't say things for nothing; it has decades of experience of the sorts of mistakes people (and it) have made in the past.

CJLL · LXF regular Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:22 pm Posts: 193

nelz · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:23 am Post subject:

I don't think the NHS qualifies as a "company committed to open source".
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Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

towy71 · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:54 am Post subject:

guy · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:00 pm Post subject:

Maybe the UK government is like many large organizations, and already uses a lot of free software server-side, without knowing it. Wink

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Guy
The eternal noob

nelz · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:36 pm Post subject:

Are you suggesting our government doesn't know what it is doing? :-O
_________________
Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

It wouldn't be the first time.

nordle · LXF regular Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:56 pm Posts: 1497

I thought maybe Guy was eluding to the "free as in beer" side.

Any large organisation is quite likely to not be entirely correctly licensed.
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I think, therefore I compile

guy · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:27 pm Post subject:

Lots of IT geeky stuff goes on in the engine rooms of national government departments Cool

. The average user tends to get on with their own job, blithely (and usually wrongly) assuming that because they use Windows (TM) and MS Office (TM), all the servers do too. Rolling Eyes

As for free as in beer, national government is pretty hot on licensing - if anything is unlicensed, it won't be the bureaucrats' fault - probably either a senior droid or a lowly geek Embarassed

- and once unearthed it doesn't last long Twisted Evil

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Cheers,
Guy
The eternal noob

kamrananvaar · LXF regular Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:25 am Posts: 383

UK: Head of IT development Camden: 'Cooperate with open source communities'
Government procuring open source IT should consider how to benefit from collaborating with open source communities, says Alasdair Mangham, head of Information Systems and Development of the London Borough of Camden in the UK. "We need to learn how to become experts at being members of communities rather than experts at governing them."
http://www.osor.eu/news/uk-head-of-it-development-camden-cooperate-with-open-source-communities