On Fri, 2004-11-05 at 12:02, RP McKay wrote: > > I think that's an unfair comment. There are a lot of things we don't > > know about this procurement,
But the laws of libel stop me from mentioning them :^P > -the cost of support staff (IT) and software (can you say show me the > money!) from Redmond alone would scare me away from the current path and Just wait `til they run the life-support machines on MS Windows :-( > surely the costs for a new system from scratch would be cheaper over the > long run. (not to mention the legal costs involved IF/WHEN someone can prove > their data is not secure and available to third parties, such as insurance > companies!) and lets not forget that all of us as tax payers are footing > these costs. Absolutely - though it needn't be as dramatic as starting from scratch, a transition can be planned and implemented over a number of years. > Every time I turn around another agency or government body in > the US or mainland EU are switching to other OS's due to costs...to be fair > it is mostly Linux And the reasons for switching to GNU/Linux are all side-effects of its licensing as Free Software: Specifically 1. Cost savings from not being tied to one (expensive, monopoly) vendor 2. Security (not security through obscurity) - no waiting for long-delayed patches. 3. Environmental - hardware can be kept longer. 4. Ease of use - Free Software can be configured by the admins to work just the way it is needed. 5. Local economy - local programmers can be employed to develop the software - helping the balance of payments. Most of MacOS-X is not freely licensed, so the benefits of such a switch (in this context) would be purely technical. Rather than asking where were Apple in this, one might ask where were Sun/ IBM/ Novell/ HPaq. Apple seem to have very little interest in UK government contract, witness how schools switched from Acorn to MS :-( > -No software is perfect, so there are surely still features that are not > implemented in the legacy software that will now never be made/implemented > because of the software upgrade choice they have made, whereas if they went > with a new start they could ask the all important question of what do you > need / want instead of here is what you get (can you still use it?). An interesting case study is a large hospital in Dublin which started switching to Free Software recently, including writing some of their own software which is now being taken up by other hospitals... http://www.netproject.com/docs/Beaumont.pdf However the UK government differs from every other major European government in its reluctance to break the proprietary software habit: http://www.publicservice.co.uk/pdf/cg/8/CG8%201704%20R%20Smedley%20ATL%20Amen.pdf Still, there are signs of change - but it may be years before we see noticable results. Apologies for straying a little off-topic for the list :-/ - Richard -- Free Software, in the UK, you know it makes sense: http://www.affs.org.uk/joinup.html -- Mac UK is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac UK list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-uk.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-uk%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
