[Wolves] Re: The Open Source Development Paradigm

[Peter Cannon]

On Thursday 08 December 2005 14:39, Kevanf1 wrote:

> > It was good to read about the use of OOS in NHS. But to bring people back
> > to earth have a gander at this. I think there are some good
> > complacency-pricking points made. What do you think?

I for one will not be visiting any of the hospitals using Novell-SuSE  Open 
source has a long way to go before I trust it to run a radio isotope for body 
scanning.

I seem to remember reading somewhere (A post I think) that now Novell have 
purchased SuSE that'll be the death knell for it. So whats being applauded  
is the health service yet again cutting corners at the risk of its patients. 
Did we not see the news lat night regarding hospital food? what a disgusting 
state we are in when relatives have to bring food in to keep you alive and a 
cheaper software package that will cost more in the long run as staff will go 
on training courses on how to use it, systems and processes will more than 
likely have to change, probably new IT staff will be required to run it the 
list is endless I worked in the health service for 7 years I know how they do 
things.

> > http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1660763,00.html
> > "OpenOffice is the only free and open source product competitive with
> > Office, able to read and write Microsoft format documents almost
> > flawlessly. For Linux desktop users, it is the only way to communicate in
> > the universe of business. But it also vividly demonstrates the
> > limitations of open source as a way of producing software, and its
> > futility as an ideology."

Only three or four months ago we were all bemoaning the horrendous start up 
times with Open Office, save a document in Windows format and a warning  
message pops up regarding compatability issues (Did it last night with my 
daughters home work) I don't think I fancy some medical secretary typing up 
my medical notes and then finding the file is corrupted!

Mind you who says they are using the applications that come with SuSE they  
maybe running Xen/Office 2003 Pro :P

-- 
Regards
Peter Cannon
Fedora Core 4 & Suse 10.0
Jabber:highwayman.turpin at gmail.com

"There is every excuse for not knowing,
There is no excuse for not asking!"
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