[Gllug] Linux Petition

[Christopher Hunter]

On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 21:23 +0100, Keith Edmunds wrote:
> > Please share if you find the cause worthy.
> 
> The cause may be worthy, but the likelihood of the Government migrating
> from Windows to Linux is zero, at least in the foreseeable future.
> 
> Better to ask that all new systems be Open Source.

Speaking as a Government lackey, I can (happily) report that we are
starting to use FOSS.  Uptake is slow, and there's a lot of (mostly
unfounded) resistance, but it's beginning to happen.  

Just earlier today, we selected a traffic monitoring system partly
because the software that controls it is entirely open (the hardware
even runs embedded Linux).  

The fact that the only halfway credible competitor for this system uses
WinCE (what an appropriate name!) and the control and configuration
software is proprietary and expensively licenced per copy (and had
amusingly blue-screened and hung several times during their attempted
demonstration) made the FOSS system an easy "sell" to the bean-counters!

We're starting to use Libre Office, and we're seeing quite a lot of
Ubuntu about these days (though the secretariat seem to prefer "Mint").

Hopefully, it'll just be a matter of time.  Central (and regional)
government is beginning to realise that most software licences and bogus
"support" are expensive scams.  Persistently broken software (like
Windows "Office") is now recognised to be expensive both in money and
time!

C.

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