Birmingham trials Linux in 40 libraries

[biarritz]

:) From a few months ago these trials have now finnished and i'm trying to get in touch with the council to see how they went.

Birmingham trials Linux in 40 libraries (http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2005/11/15/212909/BirminghamtrialsLinuxin40libraries.htm)

by Will Hadfield
Tuesday 15 November 2005

Birmingham City Council is converting the PCs used in its 40 libraries to Linux as part of a year-long trial of the open source operating system.

The council - the UK's largest - has commissioned an independent auditor to assess whether the trial demonstrates that using Linux and open source software represents better value than using Microsoft alternatives.

Birmingham is trialling Linux on more than 500 PCs as part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's E-Innovations project to test open source in the public sector.

The PCs will be equipped with the Gnome presentation layer of the Linux operating system, the Openoffice productivity suite and Mozilla's Firefox browser.

The local authority has kept IBM's Lotus Notes 6.5 on the 500-plus desktops because library staff need to remain within the council-wide e-mail system.

Les Timms, Birmingham City Council's IT manager with responsibility for the open source trial, said, "The next phase of the project is to do a detailed study on the cost base, the long-term viability and how it integrates with our existing structure and security."

The IT department chose Linux using the Gnome presentation layer after inviting both library staff and members of the public to try desktops using different operating systems and presentation layers.

Timms said, "We had Mac, Microsoft Windows and best-of-breed open source configurations, including KDE and Gnome. We had 300 people using the PCs. The one they preferred was Gnome."

The Linux trial will run until the end of March 2006.

[mostwanted]

Timms said, "We had Mac, Microsoft Windows and best-of-breed open source configurations, including KDE and Gnome. We had 300 people using the PCs. The one they preferred was Gnome."

Wow, cool. I would think the general indifference towards something
like desktop environments would make all the sheep say Windows.

[IYY]

Wow, cool. I would think the general indifference towards something
like desktop environments would make all the sheep say Windows.

I imagine they weren't even told anything about desktop enviorments. They just logged in and tried using each one as though it was a seperate candidate.

[mips]

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=67487&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=260

[Zodiac]

ahhhhh there we go, Birmingham England not Birmingham Alabama!

Now it makes a WHOLE lot more sense... ;)

[mips]

ahhhhh there we go, Birmingham England not Birmingham Alabama!

Now it makes a WHOLE lot more sense... ;)

Thats the problem with you yanks, think the whole world revolves around you ;) (Just kidding)

Lots of names worldwide come from the UK. We have lots of them over here. I live about 5km from Sheffield...

Figured out the other day where New York got it's name from. Must be the last port city where the ships left from in York. People got to the other side and called it New York. This sound plausible ???

Sorry for going of on a tangent here.

[GeneralZod]

Thats the problem with you yanks, think the whole world revolves around you ;) (Just kidding)

Lots of names worldwide come from the UK. We have lots of them over here. I live about 5km from Sheffield...
.

I once had occasion to be driven through Boston and, sneaking a peek at the roadmap, was surprised to find that we would be driving through Somerset and (of all place names!) Braintree! :)

[aysiu]

I wonder how they're locking them down. My library, for example, has all its PCs in kiosk mode, and I know KDE supports this, but I don't know of Gnome having any kind of kiosk mode.

[helpme]

I wonder how they're locking them down. My library, for example, has all its PCs in kiosk mode, and I know KDE supports this, but I don't know of Gnome having any kind of kiosk mode.
Pessalus and sabayon probably.
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.14/notes/en/rnadmins.html

[aysiu]

Pessalus and sabayon probably.
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.14/notes/en/rnadmins.html Cool! Thanks for the link.

[biarritz]

Timms said, "We had Mac, Microsoft Windows and best-of-breed open source configurations, including KDE and Gnome. We had 300 people using the PCs. The one they preferred was Gnome."

Wow, cool. I would think the general indifference towards something
like desktop environments would make all the sheep say Windows.

:)
When people go to buy a computer they are not given that choice, these people were.

[WebDrake]

Figured out the other day where New York got it's name from. Must be the last port city where the ships left from in York. People got to the other side and called it New York. This sound plausible ???
I believe it was originally called New Amsterdam, and was the first (or at least main) Dutch settlement in the New World.

[biarritz]

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=67487&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=260

:) thanks for the link mips

[kodak]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39284683,00.htm

a roaring success :lolflag:

seriously just bad management,


The Linux project cost £534,710, while the equivalent XP upgrade would have cost the council £429,960. There were a range of problems with the open-source implementation, Timms said, including desktop interfaces and lack of support for removeable drives.

[Polygon]

it costs less in the long run...as in they would never have to pay for upgrades again....

not to mention.....removable drives? are they talking about usb keys? usb external drives? whats wrong with the support for those...

[daynah]

Thats the problem with you yanks, think the whole world revolves around you ;) (Just kidding)

Lots of names worldwide come from the UK. We have lots of them over here. I live about 5km from Sheffield...

Figured out the other day where New York got it's name from. Must be the last port city where the ships left from in York. People got to the other side and called it New York. This sound plausible ???

Sorry for going of on a tangent here.

For some of us, Birmingham AL is right next door and we hear about it all the time... like me. I know there's a Birmingham, England, but because of AL's proximity to me, I just hear about it so much more often.

[popch]

not to mention.....removable drives? are they talking about usb keys? usb external drives? whats wrong with the support for those...

Perhaps they used an elderly distro such as SuSe Linux 1.0? Could have happened if they first bought a boxed CD and then started the project.