[Nottingham] Jobs in Open Source?

[Paul Sladen]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, David Bean wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 15:00, Martin wrote:
> > > On Sunday 06 June 2004 17:54, David Bean wrote:

Hello David,

I've tried to take my time over each of the paragraphs below--I hope they
don't offend;  if they do, please try and read them another way.

> Compatibility with (Legacy) Windows Applications [...]
> Annual maintenance agreements for above software [...]

If there is no competition for this one product it probably means your
organisation is spending more than it needs to.  (No competition.)

If the organisation is so critically reliantant on a single piece of
software I dearly hope you own the rights to it.  If it is bespoke and
you own the rights, then porting is moot point.

> A single standard desktop, for support costs.

How many variations of:

  W2003, W2000, XP, 98, 98 OSR2, PocketPC, ME, WinCE, NT4...

are currently in use in your organisation?

> Minimal Training of IT staff (9 of them).
> [...] Only one other person familiar with anything but Windows.

<permission-to-speak-freely-sir>

  Six of these people are probably being over-paid;  you seem to imply a
  grave lack of experience amongst the team.

  The long-term commerical benefits of hiring somebody with a broader
  skill-base are likely to be significant.

  ``More clue, less peeps''

</permission-to-speak-freely-sir>

> Cost/Benefit and Risk

Compare the cost/benefit of a one-time upgrade to GNU/Linux with the
cost/benefit of a one-time upgrade to Windows(N+1).  Use whichever works
out most cost-effective, use it--and use any difference as a bargining tool
to improve that tender.

	-Paul

Summary: ignore the platform issue and worry about that single application
and the large number of people it seems to need to manage it.
-- 
Is there no safe way to travel?  London, GB