I would like to add what we are currently experiencing in the State of VT Agency of Natural Resources, as far as budget cuts and software is concerned. The budget cuts are hitting pretty hard and it has all but stopped hardware purchases. Custom software production, from contractors, has stopped as much as possible. The in house software maintenance and development has remained consistent, as it is a very small operation. There is a huge amount of money being spent on licensing for the http://www.esri.com/ ArcGis software. We are pretty much locked into this software, and a lot of budgeting and development is determined by the development and release cycle of the ArcGiS Software; just as the schedule of building a house is completely dependent on the schedule of building the Roads, Services and Concrete Foundation. However, a huge drawback of the ArcGis software, is the 10 character limit to the length of the names of the table columns. We are also completely dependent on the Microsoft SQL Server Databases. (Some other agencies are dependent on the Oracle.) All of the software mentioned is expensive and argumentatively worth the money spent.
The one that I am the most concerned with is the Microsoft Office 2007 push, and its implications. Starting with the assets that MS Office brings to the table (we do not need Office 2007 for this) is the huge amount of MS Access databases already in existence that depend on Access to be usable. Next is the ability to connect to ODBC databases. But the most important feature is the ability to export tables in a variety of formats. The ones I need, in particular, are MS Excel and DB IV (for the ArcGis and ArcMap applications). I would prefer to work with Open Office, and I usually do, accept that Open Office cannot export Excel and DB IV tables. Now for the huge liabilities of the MS Office 2007 migration. It is outrageously expensive, and the State is in the middle of a huge purchase of licenses. The sales people as Microsoft are probably claiming that they are offering a huge discount on this software that has had been excessively marked up. The Office 2007 software is so hard to use, it is guaranteed to cost excessive amounts of money across the board for labor. It will cost even more for labor for testing, and training the entire staff. The Microsoft software, in general is constantly being riddled with viruses and is completely unreliable. Vista was such a blunder, and Windows XP 64 bit is only available in beta, so all workstations are running 32 bit XP OSs on 64 bit hardware. The software, and development software, are basically a blunder. All the applications are 32 bit, and we develop software for a 64 bit servers on a 32 bit software running on 64 workstations. Now to add to the mix, is Microsoft's persistence in using a new version of files that are proprietary "latest version" for it's default save feature. The State has bought into converting all documents to MS Office 2007 proprietary XML, hook line and sinker. This will cost even more excessive labor and cause huge incompatibility problems. I am currently dealing with an issue of providing a group of people tables to be used in form letters and billing statements. I know that these will be much easier to do in Open Office, but I am stuck attempting to make it work in MS Office 2007 (in Office 2003 format) or Cristal Reports. Both of which are excessively complicated and do a shabby job. This is excessively expensive for material and labor. The fields that are being queried also need to be mutable. The choices for editing tables are MS Access and Microsoft ASP/VB .Net 2008, and the push is for .Net. It is hard to say if there is a better way for editing, now, but I was appalled by the original decision to go with .Net over Java. Microsoft servers software is expensive, exceptionally unreliable, and constantly needs to be rebooted, but our network staff would never admit to that. The constant expense of licenses causes excessive travel. Using Linux and Java would allow people to do work from home, just as easily as from the office. The bottom line is that I think it would cost a lot less to train people to use Open Office, and start a migration away from MS Office, then to go through all the obstacles and fiery hoops that are put in place with the presentation of MS Office 2007. I think that the Open Office software is much more compatible, way easier to use, and would cost a lot less for labor in the short term, and cause reduction labor costs over the long term. We do need the ability export tables in a variety of formats with Open Office. And Finally, it seems that there is no way that I can influence these Microsoft Software purchase decisions without risking my job. As with other areas where I see there are problems, it seems the only way to have an influence is to lobby in the Congress and The House with solutions. Cheers, Andrew On Fri, 2008-12-12 at 10:19 -0500, Paul Flint wrote: > Dear Rubin, > > Thanks for the insight. Why are you always about 5 steps ahead of the > pack? I, for one, am starting to worry that you do not sleep. > > Again excellent and... > > Kindest Regards, > > Flint > > On Thu, 11 Dec 2008, Rubin Bennett wrote: > > > Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:34:36 -0500 > > From: Rubin Bennett <[email protected]> > > Reply-To: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts <[email protected]> > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: VT State Budget Cuts... a time to talk F/OSS? > > > > Having used revision control fairly recently on several documents that I > > exchanged with a Windows/ Office 200[37] user, I can tell you that OOo > > and Track Changes works just fine (although not if the Windowze user is > > using Office 2007 and docX). > > > > In OOo, it's called "record changes" and can be found under Edit -> > > Changes -> Record. > > > > Rubin > > > > On Thu, 2008-12-11 at 19:02 -0500, Nick Floersch wrote: > >> Why is jumping ship to OS/X the biggest crime? It's a stable UNIX > >> platform that's been around longer than Linux... is jumping ship to > >> Solaris or IRIX or AIX or Open/Free/Net-BSD also a big crime, or is OS/X > >> particularly bad in some way? > >> > >> Just curious - no harassment intended :) > >> > >> -Nick > >> > >> --- > >> Nicholas Floersch (pr. Floor-sh) > >> Stone Environmental, Inc. > >>> -----Original Message----- > >>> From: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts > >>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Moran > >>> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:57 PM > >>> To: [email protected] > >>> Subject: Re: VT State Budget Cuts... a time to talk F/OSS? > >>> > >>> On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Dave Tisdell > >>> <[email protected]> wrote: > >>>> Hi Chris, > >>>> "It often saddens me to see FUD type comments from FOSS supporters." > >>>> I am a little baffled by this sentence. Otherwise, I agree whole > >>> heartedly > >>>> with your post. > >>> > >>> I constantly read and hear "people who know" parroting the "it'll cost > >>> a lot to convert people to OOo or linux because of all the new > >>> training that'll need to happen". > >>> > >>> I find it a red herring at best and the confusing part is why further > >>> that line of thought? > >>> My anecdotal evidence - limited as it is since I've worked with far > >>> too many people who are afraid of any time changes, or have already > >>> jumped ship to OOo... though a lot jumped ship to OSX as well, which I > >>> find the biggest crime. ;) > >>> Chris > >>> -- > >>> c h r i s . m o r a n @ g m a i l . c o m > >>> b u t y o u k n o w t h a t a l r e a d y > >>> > >>> Read my mind @ http://iamchrismoran.blogspot.com/ArcGis > >> > >> This communication, including any attachments, is solely for the > >> confidential use of the person(s) named above. If you have received this > >> communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and > >> delete/destroy the original. Any reader other than the intended recipient > >> is hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying > >> of this message is strictly prohibited. > > -- > > Rubin Bennett > > rbTechnologies, LLC > > 80 Carleton Boulevard > > East Montpelier, VT 05651 > > > > (802)223-4448 > > http://thatitguy.com > > > > "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." > > Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance > > French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778) > > > > Kindest Regards, > > > > Paul Flint > (802) 479-2360 > > > /************************************ > Based upon email reliability concerns, > please send an acknowledgment in response to this note. > > Paul Flint > Barre Open Systems Institute > 17 Averill Street > Barre, VT > 05641 > > http://www.bosivt.org > http://www.flint.com/home > skype: flintinfotech > Work: (202) 537-0480 > Fax: (703) 852-7089 > > Consilium > gratuitum .~. > valet /V\ > quanti /( )\ > numerantur ^^-^^ >
