Terry >I'll be interested to see the outcome.
An unedited streamed MP3 recording of the Open Standards, FRAND, and FOSS event held on Thursday 29th March is now available at: http://ossg.bcs.org/2012/02/25/open-standards-frand-and-foss-london-290312/#comments Mark Elkins Chair OSSG ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, 27 March 2012, 13:00 Subject: dorset Digest, Vol 429, Issue 2 Send dorset mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dorset or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of dorset digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: OT: Cabinet Office Ditches Open Standards in IT (Terry Coles) 2. Re: OT: Cabinet Office Ditches Open Standards in IT ([email protected]) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:42:45 +0100 From: Terry Coles <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Dorset] OT: Cabinet Office Ditches Open Standards in IT To: Dorset Linux User Group <[email protected]> Message-ID: <6471691.jZCUBdry2V@beige> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" On Monday 26 Mar 2012 12:13:37 Mark Elkins wrote: > The Open Source Consortium (OSC) http://www.opensourceconsortium.org/ are > mentioning the > http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2012/01/microsoft-hustled > -uk-retreat-o.html again in their blog. Just a thought but you might find > this blog good reading if you want to join it - which can be done for free. I'll keep an eye on this as I work through the responses. > Also rather timely OSSG are on the case of FRAND etc this Thursday eve > http://ossg.bcs.org/2012/03/29/ I'll be interested to see the outcome. In all this I see two distinct camps in the Government side: 1. The people who genuinely want to get it right and understand the issues. In other words they know what is needed to ensure that citizens and UK companies get the best chance of reading and using government documents. 2. The people who listen to 'Industry' and believe that they have to keep the likes of Microsoft and Oracle 'happy'. Quite why they might have that belief is open to interpretation (and vested interests). We live in interesting times ;-) -- Terry Coles 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:10:27 +0100 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dorset] OT: Cabinet Office Ditches Open Standards in IT To: Dorset Linux User Group <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; DelSp="Yes"; format="flowed" There is one reliable rule when judging which way these things go - look for where the money is! There is no cashflow from Open Document Format. There is, however, 'lobbying' (and all that entails!) from the big commercial companies, so the result is entirely predictable. I downloaded the Consultation Document. The bureaucratic obfuscation it contains, and the frequent inclusion of external references (FRAND being one example) ensures that understanding the document would be such a massive task that so few would be able to do it and mount an effective challenge that the big players will be assured of victory (as usual!). Although Linux, and other Open Source software which use ODF, seems to be growing in market share, it is nowhere near stable or usable enough for the main market drivers, business, to rely upon. Producing stable and reliable office software that business can use with confidence - an equivalent to the full MS-Office suit - that doesn't suffer from frequent upgrades or patches (a version that runs for a decade without changes would be a good target) is what is sorely needed. I know many MS-based business who deliberately do not upgrade for as long as they can, and I ran XP-Pro and Office-Pro for about that long on that very basis - that plan only went wrong when new PCs only came with Vista and XP was not available. I am using Linux now for as much of work as I can, but it is the 'office' applications that enable the power giants to rule in business and in government, and it is here that Linux has a long way to go. Only when Linux is good and stable enough to attract business, most of whom require no more than MS-Office suit's offerings for their normal daily internal and external work and inter-business communications, will the uptake be strong enough to starve the lobby-supported giants. Make them wither on the vine! This 'Consultation' will support the lobbing giants as I am sure it is designed to do. I am keeping my eyes, and hopes, on developing Open Source offerings. When Open Source is stable and usable enough (when you don't need a full-time IT to make it work!), I plan, through my organisation, to offer free training and support to small and medium-sized business who want to set up on it or make the switch. I would still support a challenge, think this is a better, more practical, and eventually more effective, way to challenge the power-giants than getting sucked into a bogus 'Consultation'. Well, that's my view anyway. Charles Miller PAMPRU Institute ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ dorset mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dorset End of dorset Digest, Vol 429, Issue 2 ************************************** -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday 2012-04-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread on mailing list: mailto:[email protected] How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
