[GLLUG] IT does cost

[Christopher Hunter]

On 06/08/2021 12:31, Andy Smith via GLLUG wrote:
> To be honest I am so disillusioned with the level of corruption in
> government that I can't see how there could ever be a level playing
> field for open source software in this market.

I used to work for a Government department, and realised that there was 
no hope whatsoever for FOSS when certain ex-Prime Minister was bought a 
Belgravia house by a large software company......

The persistent argument in Governmental Departments is that "there's a 
warranty with Windows".  They also find that "Windows Sysadmins" are 
cheaper to hire than the likes of you and me, so the supposed economics 
of proprietary software win out every time.  They simply can't 
understand the fallacies inherent in that viewpoint, and when questioned 
on the actual validity of any Windows "guarantee", they insisted that 
they would be able to "apply governmental pressure" to Microsoft to make 
them fix things!  The degree of delusion in government is truly scary.

I was at a demonstration of the vulnerabilities in Windows 7, provided 
by the "cyber security" bods from GCHQ.  They broke into a few "password 
protected" Win 7 laptops and "secure" Blackberries, and recovered 
supposedly "secure" emails.  At the discussion after the demonstration, 
the Minister present pointed out that the vulnerabilities "would allow 
Government to keep a watchful eye on all that's going on" - they WANTED 
vulnerabilities!  When it was pointed out that anyone else would be able 
to break into those laptops, including "foreign actors", they said that 
they were unconcerned because "no major foreign power would be the 
slightest interested in the minutiae of British government"!

No government IT project has ever come in on budget, and exactly none of 
them has worked as advertised.  They have squandered £Billions in the 
last 40 years, and have achieved almost nothing. The NHS IT 
infrastructure has never worked, despite them throwing ever more money 
at the problem, and hospitals and GPs are still keeping all patient 
records on paper.

They really are clueless/

Chris