I'm from Australia so I'm not sure about how things work in the UK but here
is my suggestion anyway.
In Australia we have volunteer fire fighters that help out when things get
bad (like they have just recently). The Volunteers arrange with their
managers at work so that they'll be able to rush off if their pager calls
them.
How about if the UK government adopts a similar philosophy with IT and then
all the ???LUG gurus could become volunteer troubleshooters in times of
emergency? :P
Ok, sounds like a long shot but at least all the USB data keys you guys
would leave on the train would be encrypted :)
There is another snag here. Open source software may be cheaper in the long
run but requires more money now as users will need to be retrained,
desktops/servers modified, sysadmins go on training courses, etc, etc. Of
course if you take a 20 year view it will probably be cheaper, but not in
the short term (read before the next election, and then before the election
after that, etc). Any screw ups will be splashed all over the news and the
opposition will cry bloody murder.
Open standards are definitely high on the agenda for Australian gov agencies
(my dad worked for the Bureau of Stats for 30 years). That is a good start
for sure. As more and more open source knowledgable people get into these
institutions though there will be more internal support for a push for
something different.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Stu
2009/2/26 Phillip Chandler <phillip.chandler@???>
> On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 01:43 +0000, Stuart Sears wrote:
> > Phillip Chandler wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2009-02-25 at 14:06 +0000, Simon Capstick wrote:
> > >> Does anyone believe the government will actually follow through
> > >> with this one?
> > >>
> > >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7910110.stm
> > >>
> > >> Simon
> > >
> > > You must have missed this bit :
> > >
> > > "Open source software will be adopted "when it delivers best value
> > > for money", the government said.".
> >
> > Have you read the actual document this refers to?
> >
> > http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/open_source/090224opensource.pdf
> >
> > I particularly like this part:
> >
> > <quote>
> > The Government will, wherever possible, avoid becoming locked in to
> > proprietary software. In particular it will take exit, rebid and rebuild
> > costs into account in procurement decisions and will require those
> > proposing proprietary software to specify how exit would be achieved.
> > </quote>
> >
> > ...that sounds remarkably like a commitment to open standards to me, or
> > at least taking the cost of migration into consideration when deploying
> > non-O/S software. That may well affect the 'value for money' criterion.
> >
> > If this opens the door for more open standards, then marvellous.
> >
> > Game On.
> >
> > oh and this bit:
> >
> > <quote>
> > Where there is no significant overall cost difference between open and
> > non-open source products, open source will be selected on the basis of
> > its additional inherent flexibility.
> > </quote>
> >
> > just one more, I can't help myself :)
> >
> > <quote>
> > [...] Where appropriate, general purpose software developed for
> > government will be released on an open source basis.
> > </quote>
> >
> > > Thats a cop-out clause.
> >
> > No, it's not. It's paraphrased/quoted at best. I am not a government
> > apologist, but this is a remarkable step forward and very positive.
> >
> > All that's really required is that they assess open source solutions
> > in the same context as closed source and that they justify how they
> > eventually spend our money. This can only be a good thing. They are not
> > promising to change all their desktops to Linux (or any other open
> > source O/S). In fact I would be absolutely gobsmacked if they ever did.
> >
> > > Ive used Linux for quite a while, and thankfully picked up a lot of
> > > stuff.
> > >
> > > But what support do you have for Linux ?
> >
> > > 1) - Forums.
> >
> > Not at a professional level, for anything beyond the simplest things.
> > Besides, google first :)
> >
> > In large organisations, it's 'call the helpdesk'.
> >
> > > 2) - Canonical Paid-for support.
> >
> > *ahem*. Linux does not only mean *buntu.
> > Canonical provide just one of the many options.
> >
> > Red Hat support services are in general excellent
> > Admittedly I'm biased, I work for the company, but I do speak to a lot
> > of customers. :).
> > Then there's Novell (and of course, even Oracle these days).
> > Plus anyone else who wants in, but those are the main players.
> >
> > Any proper Enterprise-level roll-out provides some form of paid support,
> > SLAs and so on, if only to cover somebody's a***. It mitigates the risks.
> > With Open Source, that's usually most of what you pay for (that and ISV
> > / OEM certifications etc etc).
> >
> > > 3) - Your IT department if they are savvy enough about Linux.
> >
> > They are in many public sector organisations above a certain size.
> > Perhaps not at the school IT technician level (although in some cases,
> > perhaps even there).
> > Once again, this is why we have support agreements and escalation
> > procedures.
> >
> > Just my 2p worth. I could go on. In fact I have.
> >
> > Flame-retardant suit at the ready. :)
> >
>
> My last comment. We are talking about the UK Government here ? Do you
> actually believe anything they say ? Saying they are going to use open
> source software is one thing, but actually going the whole hog is a diff
> matter. They say one thing, which has two meanings, the one we think
> they are saying, and the one which will be a cop out if it goes wrong or
> doesnt work.
>
> Id love to see it work, but on the condition that we dont get another
> fiasco like the NHS computer upgrade.
>
>
>
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