Linux and the public sector

[Cliphead]

They had a Library of 200 PC's running Windows.

Some feckwit said "Rather than migrate to XP, we can migrate to Linux. It's free so the cost will be nothing."

£500K later (training, consultants, IT contractors) they have 200 PC's now running Linux. Turns out many of the Library staff used Windows only software and complex Excel spreadsheets, so these machines had to be migrated to XP.

And that sums up Linux on the desktop. License cost 0, migration cost £2500 per PC, saving???????



A top spec NEW PC with Vista costs about £500.

It actually sums up the incompetence of the muppets who usually run public sector IT projects.

[Euro-commuter]

They had a Library of 200 PC's running Windows.

Some feckwit said "Rather than migrate to XP, we can migrate to Linux. It's free so the cost will be nothing."

If that's what happened then I can't help but agree with the character characterisation of the person reponsible.

In fact that's more or less why I'm still using Windows personally: because I once did.

[Cowboy Bob]

The way you post with your pro-Microsoft rants makes me suspect that actually you know nothing about IT beyond Windows and are posting as a desperate attempt to convince yourself that you don't need other skills to stay competetive. Am I right, or am I right?

BTW, the key here is the words Public Sector. Tell me how much the latest NHS rollout on .NET has gone over budget and then blame that on Microsoft. There's nothing in this story that is to do with Linux and everything to do with the usual "consultants" cocking it all up.

[AtW]

Tell me how much the latest NHS rollout on .NET has gone over budget

Dim is okay with that because he is a .NET contractor

HTH

[DimPrawn]

The way you post with your pro-Microsoft rants makes me suspect that actually you know nothing about IT beyond Windows and are posting as a desperate attempt to convince yourself that you don't need other skills to stay competetive. Am I right, or am I right?

BTW, the key here is the words Public Sector. Tell me how much the latest NHS rollout on .NET has gone over budget and then blame that on Microsoft. There's nothing in this story that is to do with Linux and everything to do with the usual "consultants" cocking it all up.

I am a Microsoft specialist. Have worked for Microsoft and have been doing Microsoft dev (deep techie) since Windows 2.0 when it was all C and Windows message pump coding. Before that I was working on DEC and embedded systems.

It has provided me with a large unbroken income and now as a .NET expert, name your rate!

What makes me laugh is the belief that Linux has any place in a modern IT world other than as a faceless low end server.

It's quite sad to see another public sector "trial of open source" blow £500K on 200 dusty desktops in a Library, when plainly, Linux on a desktop beyond some geeks bedroom, makes a much sense as a New Liebore drone.

HTH

[AtW]

I am a Microsoft specialist. Have worked for Microsoft and have been doing Microsoft dev (deep techie) since Windows 2.0 when it was all C and Windows message pump coding.

And it was I who wrote original Windows code overnight and gave it away to Billy.

threaded.

[Cowboy Bob]

I am a Microsoft specialist.

Translation: You're falling behind in terms of new technology and you're frightened for your future.

The idea of Linux on the desktop isn't quite so strange for people like this - http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6103 - and that story is from back in 2002 and a whole host of movie studios have followed suit. Did you like Lord Of The Rings, King Kong, Shrek, etc? All made on Linux.

Maybe Linux is not yet ready for people who are already deeply entrenched with Microsoft stuff, but in the last 5 years I can tell you it's advanced a hell of a lot faster than Windows did from XP to Vista. If it continues at the same pace at some point people will realise that it has leapt ahead of Windows and start migrating en masse. At the moment it won't because there's no real reason to switch, but the time will almost certainly come when there will be more compelling reasons to switch than there is now, and at that point you will be years behind in learning the technology.

A good contractor should be equally comfortable on any technology platform up to a reasonable skill level. That way they are prepared for whatever the future holds, or whatever machines their next client has in their server room. If you sat me down in front of a Linux, Sun, Windows, Mac, AIX, HP-UX or AS/400 machine I could instantly start writing software. With Linux especially there's absolutely no excuse not to learn it, it's not like it's prohibitively priced.

I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to these things, and only an idiot takes fanboyism to a level where they refuse to try anything else out.

[DimPrawn]

Well, when the big money Windows/.NET/SQL Server/BizTalk contracts start drying up I'll give you a call. Don't hold your breath.

[darmstadt]

Sorry, Linux does work on the desktop:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3854

And there are a host of others. Interestingly enough most of them are over here on the mainland yet those that are in the UK tend to fail. Does that have any meaning?

Also IBM are moving internally to a Linux desktop:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12...x/article.html

Which I've seen and looks pretty good. One of the main reasons that I haven't fully gone to a Linux desktop is due to Lotus Notes support but IBM have that now.

[Cliphead]

They can make it work in Germany.

http://www.allbusiness.com/technolog.../193759-1.html