Government jobs = Windows, Outlook and Excel?

[Johnsie]

Should governments who are looking to save money start using free software on their workstations instead of Microsoft? What are the pros and cons of such a move? I'd like to hear a balanced response.

Are there any case studies which show the effects of governments switching to free software?

[quinnten83]

Should governments who are looking to save money start using free software on their workstations instead of Microsoft? What are the pros and cons of such a move?

Are there any case studies which show the effects of governments switching to free software?

Too late now, Vendor lockin dictates that they have to stay with MS.
And TBH MS office is kinda nicer looking than OO.o.

[northwestuntu]

well oregon schools just switched to google docs to save money. i think it's a great idea. why waste all that money with microsoft office when you can have the same thing for free or lower cost?

[kaldor]

well oregon schools just switched to google docs to save money. i think it's a great idea. why waste all that money with microsoft office when you can have the same thing for free or lower cost?

My high school wanted to switch to Ubuntu, but "Openoffice isn't compatible with anything" so they couldn't do it.

[Johnsie]

I agree that Office is alot nicer looking than OO and Evolution... And Outlook is a pretty good solution for communication. Mainly due to the 'Global Address Book'.

Not too sure if Google Docs is appropriate because they will hold confidential information on 'the cloud'. Data privacy is very important to government (even though they do seem to lose data quite regularly)

[RiceMonster]

They won't necessarily save money. Yes, Linux is free, but there's the cost of transitioning over, possibly retraining, and possibly hiring new staff (current staff may not be familiar with Linux). However, it may be the case if they're looking to upgrade that it would be cheeper to switch to Linux. There's a lot of determining factors.

There may also be a chance they use specialized software that is only available on Windows. Wine is not really a solution, as it would make support a lot more difficult.

[Megaptera]

Some big name users here:

http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/50-places-linux-running-you-might-not-expect/

[jrothwell97]

In business, you use the tool that provides the best balance between features, ease-of-use (especially given prior training) and cost.

At present, OpenOffice.org provides a very poor balance: the only thing really going in its favour is that it's free. It's also slow, buggy and with a UI that makes Lotus Notes look like a paradigm of good design. (OK, that's a bit unfair, but still... very poor.)

[pwnst*r]

well oregon schools just switched to google docs to save money. i think it's a great idea. why waste all that money with microsoft office when you can have the same thing for free or lower cost?

Fortunately, you have no idea what you're talking about.

[pookiebear]

Fortunately, you have no idea what you're talking about.
:grin: awesome


Side note, I would love to see what the federal gov't has spent on just msoffice alone in 2009 or 2008. Or any of the state gov'ts. Anyone have a source?

[aysiu]

Windows and Microsoft Office do not have fixed costs. If Microsoft believes a government will switch to Linux and OpenOffice, why wouldn't they just renegotiate some bulk licensing deal to make sure the government still uses their products? There are also site licenses for some Microsoft software, so you don't have to pay per seat but can install the software on an as many company/government/school machines as you want.

The real problem is really that budgets don't work that way. A lot of organizations don't really look at how to save money. They have annual budgets for various things (office supplies, facilities, technology, human resources, etc.), and if those areas do not use all of their annual budget, then they get less money allocated for the year after.

Also, even though there are tens of thousands of dollars (or euros, or whatever currency you use) going into software licenses, if you're a government, that's peanuts compared to how much you spend on other things (defense, social programs, physical operations, furniture), so the effort involved in switching to free software probably isn't worth it if people are used to using Windows and Office.

That said, I don't really approve of that whole approach. I think departments that find ways to save money while maintaining productivity should be rewarded, not punished. Those departments should get their budgets inflated, not slashed. Otherwise, you just encourage frivolous spending.

[donkyhotay]

Although USA is stuck pretty good in vendor lock-in many other countries have chosen to go fully open source. I've heard brazil and france both use open source software in their systems.

[Meep3D]

Why is it so wrong to spend money paying people to develop software for you, yet paying people to develop pens, paper and hardware is fine? Why is there this focus on 'going free' when the amount of money (in the greater scheme of things) for office licenses is minimal?

[donkyhotay]

That said, I don't really approve of that whole approach. I think departments that find ways to save money while maintaining productivity should be rewarded, not punished. Those departments should get their budgets inflated, not slashed. Otherwise, you just encourage frivolous spending.

What? Logic and common sense be part of the government process? You must be a terrorist/pedophile/commie/jap/slaver/abolitionist/royalist/pagan/christian/whoever is the target of witchhunts this decade/evildoer and of course must be killed without trial. (c;

[McRat]

Here's how the food chain works:

Task -> Application -> O/S -> Hardware

The most important goal is to get the task done cost-effectively, which usually means fastest.

If you cannot get the task done, or it's slow to get done, you must alter:

Application. Even a slow computer with a poor operating system with the right Application is an excellent solution most times. There is more time savings available at the user interface than at the CPU or API calls.

Then comes the O/S. A good O/S can overcome many hardware limitations, but no amount of hardware in the world can fix a bad O/S.

Last is the hardware. A 6502 chip or 8080 chip has enough computing power to do most common tasks. Yup. Millions of instructions per second! But as the O/S, Applications, and Tasks get more complex you must get hardware that is capable.

Oddly, sometimes things are looked at entirely backwards:

"OK, I have a MondoMax 90986! Let me find an O/S!"
"OK, now I have SnoSlo X 7.344. What kind of apps can it run!"
"OK, I found some great apps it can run! Now what do I want to do with the computer?"

No. Define your task. Find your application. Find the O/S it runs under. Find the hardware it needs.

[ugm6hr]

The French Government and Gendarmerie are oft-quoted success stories.

[Bölvaður]

Depends on the organization. The one I work for doesn't care if I install w/e I want on it and my boss dual boots xp with ubuntu.
There are some that have already switched also.... might vary greatly between countries. I would guess the more backwards ones are the ones that are conservative and saying "we use what we have always used"..... and thats why lotus notes are everywhere.

[MooPi]

well oregon schools just switched to google docs to save money. i think it's a great idea. why waste all that money with microsoft office when you can have the same thing for free or lower cost?

Fortunately, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Article on the subject and he does seem to have an idea of what he speaks. http://www.pcworld.com/article/195183/oregon_schools_to_use_google_appsand_why_microsoft _should_worry.html