Hi all Only just moved back to Dorset, I've come from Kent where I was a member of KLUG. I was hoping to make the meeting yesterday but unfortunately something came up.
Microsoft Volume Licencing for government is actually much cheaper than you'd think but it still in no-way represents the value of FLOSS. The arguments I've seen made again-and-again by councils are: The abundance of technical operations staff qualified on Microsoft platforms means that they are cheaper to acquire than those skilled in FLOSS platforms; and The unification of operating system and productivity software under a single Volume Licencing Agreement means that support tiers above first level can be cost-effectively be outsourced to the vendor. Rather than the fragmented or community support that would be required for FLOSS; I work in information security and we used to question procurement strategies as a part of our operational maturity assessments. Remember these aren't my arguments by-the-way, so please don't shoot the messenger. Jimmy On 4 Apr 2012, at 09:42, [email protected] wrote: > Thanks Terry, it was 95 when I signed, so some signatories must have pulled > out! > > I wonder how much of our money the government and its departments is actually > spending annually on purchasing Microsoft Office and other routine (i.e., > non-specialist) software. > > This could be a 'Freedom Of Information' question, but the question would > need to be framed very carefully indeed if it is to avoid the government's > usual obfuscation process (they could claim that MS-Office was 'specialist > office software' for instance and not include it). > > I feel sure that the sum would be enormous, and that making it public at a > time when the government is taking more and more money from it's citizens, > would make a telling point that would bring the money being spent in this > direction to the attention of the public at large and greatly help the case > Open Source. > > I feel like making an FOI request myself, but I am not familiar with the > process and, being just an individual, I might not achieve any significant > effect. I don't know who would be best placed to do this - an MP, or a large > newspaper perhaps, does anyone have ideas? > > Charles Miller > > > Quoting Terry Coles <[email protected]>: > >> On Monday 02 Apr 2012 20:55:21 Victor Churchill wrote: >>> I saw this mentioned on a different LUG list I lurk in: >>> >>> "Just to let you know that a LinuxQuestions member initiated an >>> e-petition to call for a Windows to Linux migration on the government >>> IT systems. >>> http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32255 >> >> Well. I went there and the page said that there were 115 signatories so far. >> >> I filled it in, responded to the confirmatory email and the number of >> signatories changed to 114! >> >> How does that work then? If we got everyone on this LUG and a few others to >> sign, we'd be into negative numbers. >> >> -- >> Terry Coles >> 64 bit computing with Kubuntu Linux >> >> -- >> 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 >> > > > > -- > 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 -- 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
