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RE: [LUG] Lib Dem MP view on needs for public sector IT support



At the risk of saying too much (again):

I would love to talk more openly about Dr Pugh's observations. But I fear
that the only outcome would be my summary dismissal. Needless to say I think
his views are both right and wrong, yes we do need vendors but then "buyer
beware", while you cant lock anyone into a particular open source solution,
you can lock them into the proprietary solutions that have been woven into
them. Vendors know how to make money out of public sector (they have been
doing it for a long time), the battle fields may change but the vendors know
how to adapt their strategies. Unless the solutions are 100% open source, I
would be very cautious about adopting them. Where the vendors solution has
so much as 0.1% thats proprietry solution, he has a hold over his customer.
Lack of documentation is another leaverage for the vendor. "Dont worry about
the configs we will do it for you .... ching ching"

Additionally I know of at least one local authority that have in-house UNIX
/ Linux skills. So the argument about not having technical support is at
least flawed as far as this authority goes. But then this maybe the
exception not the rule. I think the point here is that public sector dont
always know how best to utilise their own skill sets.

I'm not claiming to be a victim here, I have the choice to stay and fight,
or move on to something else. I choose to stay .... for the moment.

Solutions ?

I think we need to cut out the middle men and pay the programmers to provide
truely 100% open source solutions directly tailored to the needs of the
public sector. Not free as in bear (quite the opposite I would imagine) but
definately free as in speach. Its not a new idea (The German goverment is
way ahead on this (again) ). I have seen so many ideas developed using tax
payers money that then hijacked through commerical spin off and takeover,
why should the taxpayer go on paying for this double-whammey effect. Non of
the inhouse code we developed here is protected by GPL, (quality aside) it
should be as the public paid for its development !

There I have said too much already.

Tom.

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