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Re: [LUG] UK - Closed Source Stronghold

 

In all seriousness I have been working on the promotion and use of FLOSS software 
for over 10 years, and am still astonished at what I can only describe as simply 
pure ignorance in both private enterprise and public sector IT departments.
I truly believe that the problem is actually both systemic, and endemic and having 
expended a considerable number of years trying to educate and demonstrate the power 
of FLOSS, I firmly believe that the UK is a lost cause. Further more I also think 
that as a result our economic status and position as a 1st world technological and 
economical leader will be compromised.

The examples I have had a hand in deploying have all demonstrated the viability of 
FLOSS software, the SuperTramp deployment being a case in point, saving the company 
Â30,000 in year 1, when compared relative to the MS Vol licensing proposal, and 
support costs.

Looking at the problem endemically, in 2002 I visited East Devon district council to 
discuss FLOSS systems. The attitude was underwhelming, the Director of technologies 
put it very plainly "We have IT staff who only know Microsoft, they develop in 
visual basic. The retraining and re-skilling costs make it completely impractical" 
further more our user base only know Microsoft they simply would not be able to work 
with Open Source software, even close counter parts like Open Office.
When you move further up the governmental stack the situation gets worse, with some 
Cheif Technology Officers who back then hand't realised that Apple were still 
selling systems, never mind knowing what Linux was. I suspect that's changed a 
little in the last couple of years but by how much? I suspect simply not enough.
When you get right to the top then the situation becomes more clandestine, with 
senior executives being placed in companies, and public sector posts. 

I held the post of CEO of the Open Source Consortium prior to Jerry Gavigan (simply 
a brilliant guy), whilst in post the OSC took on the BBC over it's botched roll out 
of the iPlayer, which at the time was developed only to run on Windows XP. The 
interesting thing about this was the path of development. The beeb had been working 
on a technology called Dirac for some time and progress was going well, budgets were 
restricted and it was only a small in house team. Then Erik Huggers was appointed 
director of Future Technology & Media, suddenly the direction changed and 
development was directed to a Windows Media based framework, budgets ramped 
massively and Dirac development stalled. Very interesting that Ericks' previous 
career decade was working for Microsoft 
http://informitv.com/news/2007/05/03/bbcappointsmicrosoft/

The OSC had members who worked internally at the BBC in the technology departments 
so we were privy to a lot of what was going on, essentially the Dirac project was 
being mothballed.
Anyway we won the day with OfCom and the grounds of illegal state aid, (EU Law) and 
the BBC were forced to develop an open platform player. However, there are parallels 
such as this everywhere and Microsoft spends considerable money putting the right 
people in the right places to enable it to manipulate the Market. Look at the recent 
dropping of MeeGo and Qt by Nokia for Windows, interestingly the whole deal was 
brokered by the Nokia COO, who just happens to be ex MS just like Mr Huggers.
The UK and indeed Europe as a whole, but significantly the UK is a massive source of 
revenue for Microsoft, but further more as a 1st world lead in commerce and 
particularly finance, it is strategically very important for MS to maintain platform 
dominance in the UK, as this drives lockin and the upgrade paths via format and 
protocol changes.

When it comes to Systemic then the problem here is education. There was a 
fundamental change in the IT curriculum throughout UK schools and colleges about 25 
years ago. The IBM PC took over from the earlier Commodore PET and BBC Micro and the 
PC with Windows became the platform of choice for education, even today right 
through to University students are taught Microsoft systems and software, along with 
Java and Visual Basic for programming. The problem with this is the abstraction it 
makes from the base architecture and make up of the computer system. Whilst the 
students come away understanding how to type a letter in word, or  configure single 
sign on using active directory, they simply don't understand what,s happening at the 
machine level. The problem here is that once they hit the commercial Market their 
skills are not transferable to another platform or system. Thus the secretarial 
assistant knows how to use Word but doesn't understand the principles of word 
processing so is locked into the platform. The network administrator knows how to 
manipulate the MS GUI to configure active directory, but doesn,t understand the 
system activities that makes this happen (Kerberos, Ldap, SMB etc..) Thus can not 
setup similar functionality on a different platform.

So what's the answer ?
Well I still firmly believe that it's about bums on seats, you just need to get more 
people to find out about Open Source software and for them to use it. Canonicals 
work with Ubuntu has been instrumental in helping this change to take place. My very 
good friend Mark Taylor, CEO at Sirius who's work has been tireless at persuading 
bluechip companies to use Open Source, has actively lobbied George Osbourne and has 
helped Sirius deploy a number of Open Source systems into Schools. Marks work will 
reap the rewards as our young students have access to open source systems, and their 
curriculums reflect this change.

I still believe whole heartedly that growing the use of Open Source in small 
business is the way forward, it gives those businesses greater performance and 
reliability at a reduced cost, and the biggest pay back for the SME is reliability. 
My experience has shown that if you evaluate the expenditure on IT for a small 
business over a 3-5 year period it is always the support and maintenance that costs 
the most, followed quickly software licenses. When you then work out the cost in 
lost production due to unreliable IT the figure is very high.
I continue to preach the gospel according to Stallman and Torvalds when ever the 
topic of IT comes up at business meetings.

The final element sits with all of us, the enthusiasts, we have to support the 
Market by spending are cash appropriately and by asking the "Does this work with 
Linux?" whenever we uare buying tech, even if you already know the answer. We need 
the Market place to shift, and make it so that you can buy PCs with Linux 
pre-installed.

Regards and Best Wishes

Rick Timmis
Abazander Ltd

Sent from my Dragon 32

On 27 Mar 2011, at 13:43, Eion MacDonald <eionmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 27/03/2011 11:05, Philip Whateley wrote:
>> Is the need to use proprietary (and usually expensive) gadgets
>> and software an expression of the need to have visible indicators of
>> status (i.e. wealth)?
> 
> A wee tale.
> When young and hiking on hills in Scotland, I stopped to find my way, I
> was approached by a tall active kilted man with a  patched threadbare
> kilt and well darned jersey, who asked where I was going and could he
> help. I said yes. He then showed me the best way to destination and the
> route markers I should follow (some not on my maps).
> On descending to civilisation (a small clachen) and relating my
> experience, I described as a poor man who had helped. Much laughter and
> great merriment at my description.
> "Lord L.... owns all for twenty miles around and is immensely wealthy"
> "*He can afford to wear old clothes!*"
> 
> I have always remembered this description of the real wealthy
> -- 
> Regards
> Eion MacDonald (eionmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
> 
> Electronic mail is not secure and may not be authentic.
> If you have any doubts as to the contents please telephone to confirm.
> 
> 
> -- 
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