[oclug] Parliament refuses to give Linux a fair chance

[Strosberg, Bill]

> From: Richard Tomkins [mailto:tomkinsr at home.com]
> Subject: Re: [oclug] Parliament refuses to give Linux a fair chance
> 
> 
> I did read this article as well.
> I suspect that given the lower wages of the average public 
> servant, that the
> level of knowledge that they Library deals with in it's current IT
> environment is such that they can't really afford much more 
> than people
> familiar with Windows. The introduction of Linux requires 
> people with a
> stronger knowledge base and skill set in the infrastructure 
> and the budget
> isn't there for that.

 ---- WHAT? ----

This whole post is so far out in left field it may have been written in
Redmond.

Public servants are reasonably well paid, given good benefits, pension, job
security and lower performance expectations (when compared to start ups).
Yes, they forfeit the high risk/high reward lottery-like salaries, but
considering quality of life and lack of risk-enduced stress $100K+ salaries
are not everything.  As an independant contractor, I consider family days,
paid vacations, training budgets, stability and fixed hours of work as
pretty important.  Technology job advancement in the government happens at
an accelerated rate, and many traditional barriers (language preference) are
bent or dropped to secure good people.  I bet there are a lot of
ex-Nortel/Alcatel/JDS/etc. people willing to work in placid stability for
$60K plus staggering benefits right now.

As far as knowledge goes, people I know in information technology roles in
the public service are reasonably well informed and have the benefit of very
high levels of annual training and access to courses.  Yes, they live in a
Microsoft-centric world, but they are not blithering idiots by any stretch.

If the reader had read the article, the vendor was providing an email-based
new clipping service, therefore I suspect the end users never even see the
platform that does the gathering (I'm pretty sure Milan could help clear
things up).  As far as management console type stuff goes, Tk-based stuff on
X provides a very undemanding user interface.  Mime-base email messages
constructed with Linux look exactly like Mime-based email constructed with
VB (except the Linux programs actually run).

Budget?  These are the people that print money.  My wife works for a
technology training company that sells millions of dollars to the Federal
government, and the "get-rid-of-budget-surplus" feeding frenzy every year
end makes me convulse with envy.  

This is a very obvious case of preferential treatment that has no basis in
the technology, pricing or cost of use and training.  It is a bureaucratic
boondoggle of criminal proportions.

--
Bill Strosberg