[oclug] Sat evening rant

[burns]

Sandy Harris wrote:
> 
> I'm not at all sure a challenge based on Linux instead of Windows 2000 would succeed.

The challenge might succeed, but the odds would be against winning any
subsequent bid when it was forced to comeptition.

> 
> No doubt one of the requirements is that whatever they buy run their MS Office and
> whatever else they have. Yes, there are products for Linux with similar functionality,
> but that's an uphill fight, and a long hill.
> 
> Also, there's Wine, but I'm not certain it is entirely functional (especially for
> running MS code, which may have various undocumented tricks) and there are overheads.

There's also win4lin, Graphon J-Bridge, Citrix, VMWare... the list goes
forever. In fact, wine might be the least viable solution from a
stability viewpoint.

> 
> The gov't contract I'd like to see someone bid on with open source software is the
> office suite contract. A few years back DND did one for several * 10,000 seats, MS
> won and Corel screamed. I'm hazy on details.

And just how would you run StarOffice for Linux if the desktop is W2000?
Back to shells again? No architect in his right mind would build a
60,000 seat emterprise on that, Sandy. It would be suicicide.

> 
> So assume once they have their 50,000 seats of Win 2000, they want a 50,000 seat
> license for an office package. Expect MS and Corel to bid. Even at $100 a seat,
> that is $5 million. Plus training costs on the new features, support costs, ...
> 

Plus the OA (Office Automation) suite won't go up for grabs for another
4 years or so at a minimum unless there is a significant architectural
change (e.g. to Linux, etc.) DND has MS Office and can keep adding
incremental upgrades, without having to put it to competition, as long
as MS keeps churning them out.  The money and cost are not the licences.
Most companies, including MS, asre willing to virtually give the
software away in return for the lucrative service and sustainment
contracts (SLA)... that's where the real money is.

-- 
burns