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Dear all I wrote to various CCC members putting some points about GNU/Linux and just had the following reply. If any of you have opinions on their rationale for the tasks, or ultimate costing please either write to the treasurer direct with a copy to the GLUG or put your points on the List and I can collate and forward them. I personally believe the European experience differs from the position taken and any added functionality, especially if Councils co-coperated with GL developers, would cost FAR less than that provided "out of the box". What say you all? Dear James I was passed your email with regard computer software and value for money by Paul Phillips, I have now received a response from those officers responsible for this area which I am forwarding to you. Brian Higman -----Original Message----- From: Twyning Frank Sent: 04 January 2008 15:35 To: Brooke Eric CC; Higman Brian CC Subject: RE: computer refurbishment Brian/Eric The council has a standard of using market leading products which are seen to provide value for money and are sustainable. No one can argue with the market position of Microsoft, and when looking at the core set of tools our staff need access to in order to perform their core role, it makes good business sense in relation to compatibility, integration, supportability, and affordability to be standardising on Microsoft. Of the 7 council organisations in Cornwall, 6 are using the Microsoft product set. Penwith are the only exception to this, and they have had considerable issues in responding to change and communicating with other local and national organisations, such that they were planning to move to a Microsoft platform. Whilst the up front costs of a Microsoft Desktop compared to it's Freeware Linux counterpart may appear to favour the Linux route, the total cost of ownership would show a different picture. The additional work required on the Linux platform to create an integrated set of tools, which is out of the box functionality for Mirosoft would very quickly overtake any initial purchase savings, as has been experienced by Penwith. This is outside of the argument for the business to be able to quickly respond to changing needs. The council does not rely entirely on the use of Microsoft products, and have Unix and Linux systems deployed to run some of the most critical database systems used in the authority. The council uses the right tool for the right job - the Microsoft platform on the desktop where interoperability and flexibility is required, and Linux to run the council's largest databases where security and performance is critical. As a footnote, early tests for the latest release of the Office product shows that when using the compatibility download, there is forward and backward compatibility for files created in either Office 2002, 2003, or 2007. The council has seamlessly and automatically deployed this compatibility pack to all of its computers. Best wishes Frank Frank Twyning County Treasurer Room 113, County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY Tel: 01872 322500 Fax: 01872 323843 e-mail: ftwyning@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx vvvvvvvvv -- james kilty http://www.kilty.demon.co.uk -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html