I didn't hear about the German adoption, but I know of the French Gendarmes take on migration from Windows:
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars It appears to be going very well - replace the applications with open source alternatives while letting them keep working on a familiar platform, and then once they're used to the applications they use each day changing to a Linux distro amounts to changing what the start menu looks like and the quality of the free games... Andrew Bailey wrote: > I'm afraid Matt might be right. Government by using commercial software > creates an little economy that wouldn't exist if they used open source > software. I've worked in planning & GIS departments for a few councils > and the cost of the software is extraordinary. Kensington and Chelsea > spent £1m on software for a planning system. Place that across all local > authorities and the money spent of software must be huge. It would be > nice to get a figure on it. > > I remember the German government turning down a corporate-wide Microsoft > licence in favour of linux. That move, a few years ago, must have made > them look at open source. It would be interesting to know if they've had > any publicised savings or sucess stories. > > Andy Bailey > > On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:27 +0100, "Matt Ford" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Playing devil's advocate here but I can imagine people in government >> being afraid of taking away people's jobs by open sourcing software. If >> they don't open source it then someone else may be given the job of >> writing exactly the same software all over again, during a time of >> recession they may be inclined to think this is a good thing. >> >> Those more informed of us would realise that such an opinion is an >> example of the broken window fallacy. We can only hope that there are >> sensible people in place to explain the economic benefits of open source >> as an aid to innovation and 'progress'. >> >> Dave Briggs wrote: >> >>> This seems a sensible petition to sign: >>> http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/open-source-tic/ >>> >>> "The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) is running >>> a project called Timely Information to Citizens (TIC). As part of this >>> project, several local authorities are being given funding totalling >>> approximately £1m to develop software and web services to improve >>> local information and service provision. >>> >>> While CLG's aim is that these projects are incorporated into a "best >>> practice toolkit", we ask the government to reduce duplication of >>> effort and expense and make this software available for other users at >>> the earliest opportunity by releasing each package on deployment under >>> an OSI-approved open source licence. >>> >>> Though we welcome these projects themselves, as citizens we cannot and >>> do not support this substantial sum of public money being spent to >>> create private, proprietary software." >>> >>> -- >>> Dave Briggs, Digital Enabler >>> [email protected] | http://davepress.net | 07525 209589 (Mobile) >>> >>> Sign up for my monthly digital participation newsletter at >>> http://davepress.net/newsletter >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Mailing list [email protected] >>> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: >>> https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mailing list [email protected] >> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: >> https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >> > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
