Re: [Hampshire] This weeks microMart

On 10/29/2009 07:49 PM, Dee Earley wrote:
> On 29/10/2009 12:57, Stephen Davies wrote:
>
>> Has an interesting article asking the question
>>
>> Should the UK have its own Linux Distro.
>>
> Why?
>
>
Apart from the fact that being something to do with IT our government
would screw it up, I think that this would be a very good idea. One of
the reasons that Windows continues to keep a hold on the market place is
the age old "everyone knows how to use windows" argument. While Linux is
making serious in-roads especially in the server space there is
significant fragmentation of use and management styles between the major
distributions.

If the UK had their own distribution, maintained and customised for the
UK market, and the government picked up this and started using it as a
standard distribution on their servers and clients, then this would help
build a larger market of easily transferable skills.

If rolled out on the desktop it would also have the advantage that a
huge number of government employed staff would know how to use UK Linux
and would therefore be happier using it on a home PC (or laptop /
netbook). A large user like the government would also encourage
compatibility from the vast numbers of business that supply the
government which would further drive the adoption of things like ODF and
other standards rather than proprietary "standards" like MS Office.

A greater adoption of a single platform would also make life easier for
companies trying to target Linux as an install platform, they would have
a much clearer picture of the potential install base and not have to
worry about producing packages for several distributions.

I think it is a good idea, but I also think it won't happen Microsoft
has too much money to bribe (sorry, I mean lobby) the government with. I
also think too many members of the Linux community would be up in arms
too when it turned out their favourite distribution wasn't picked as the
one to use as the basis for UK Linux ;)