[Sussex] OSS with UK Government

Steve Dobson steve at dobson.org
Thu Oct 28 16:52:12 UTC 2004


On Thu, Oct 28, 2004 at 05:12:40PM +0100, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace wrote:
> Quoting Steve Dobson <steve at dobson.org>:
> > All
> > 
> > The report on the Use of Open Source Software within the UK 
> > Government has now been published.  I haven't read it yet
> > but the report I suggests it is worth reading so...
> > 
> > See some of ya tonight.
> > 
> > You can get the report from:
> > http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?docid=2190#finalreport
> 
> The Executive Summary concludes:
> 
> Key Conclusions
> On the basis of the empirical evidence and experience reported from the trials
> sites and elsewhere, the current study has concluded that:
> 
> - Viability of OSS: 
> Open Source software is a viable and credible alternative to proprietary
> software for infrastructure implementations, and for meeting the requirements
> of the majority of desktop users;
> 
> -Obstacles to implementation: 
> The main obstacles to widespread implementation of Open Source software are: for
> desktop applications, the current lack of complex functionality which can
> affect ease of migration and interoperability for some organisations; and for
> business applications, the lack of Open Source products to compete with
> large-scale proprietary enterprise-level products; no significant obstacles
> were noted for the adoption of Open Source in infrastructure developments;
> 
> - Costs and benefits: 
> Adoption of Open Source software can generate significant savings in hardware
> and software costs for infrastructure implementation, and reduce the licensing
> costs and hardware refresh requirements for desktop implementation;
> 
> - Lessons learned: 
> Adoption of Open Source, particularly for the desktop, requires investment in
> planning, training of users, development of skills for implementation and
> support, and detailed consideration of migration and interoperability issues.
> 
> Sounds encouraging to me... :)

I liked the following:

  The view of the MoD Defense Academy is that a server infrastructure based on
  Open Source software is inherently more secure than one based on proprietary
  software.

and

  Industry observers quote a typical hardware refresh period of Microsoft Windows
  systems as 3-4 years; a major UK manufacturing organisation quotes it s hardware 
  refresh period for Linux systems as 6-8 years.

Steve




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