No subject

This is an important call for action to the Ubuntu-UK team members; I =
would
like to direct you to this important Ubuntu activity and news **"East of
England FOSS in the VCS project"**.=20

You guys must get ready to accelerate and support this activity. Ubuntu =
has
once again become the reason for a wave of positive change within the UK =
ICT
governance. Jono and I would suggest Ubuntu-UK to mobilize its team =
members,
contact Chris Bailey at the Social Rights and see how you can help out =
these
departments and their member voluntary organizations in the near future =
with
the availability of any possible voluntary services, training or =
technical
support, read below this line or visit the website =
http://foss.ciac.org.uk,
or organize a small meet-up with the department and organization IT =
heads to
discuss the report!

From: Chris Bailey <chrisbailey at socialrights.org>=20
Results of Ubuntu Linux desktop tests by non-profits

As part of the East of England Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in =
the
Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) project, funded by the UK =
government's
ChangeUp programme, 10 desktop computers using Ubuntu Linux were =
distributed
to non profit organisations in the East of England Region for testing =
and
evaluation. The resulting feedback by the organisations involved has now
been published online and is available on the project's website at
http://foss.ciac.org.uk

The East of England FOSS project was last week awarded the first "Open
Technology Gold Award for the VCS" by the national FOSS in the VCS =
project.
The award was presented by Nicola Thompson, Head of the National ICT Hub =
for
the VCS at the ICT Hub East of England Regional Conference.


**************************************************

DETAILS of East of England FOSS in the VCS project

**************************************************

Results of Ubuntu Linux desktop tests in the VCS Monday 16 October 2006 =
by
Chris Bailey=20

Testing use of Linux on desktop computers

10 desktop computers using Ubuntu Linux were distributed to VCOs in the =
East
of England Region for testing and evaluation.=20

The organisations were:

Fenland CVS
Ipswich CVS
West Norfolk CVS
Cambridge Independent Advice Centre
Voluntary Action Luton
Colchester MIND
Crossroads, Cottenham
Community and Voluntary Forum: Eastern Region (COVER) Cambridge Online =
Herts
Citizens Advice


A range of suitable FOSS programs were included:

Open Office - FOSS equivalent to Microsoft Office Evolution - FOSS
equivalent to Microsoft Outlook Firefox - FOSS equivalent to Internet
Explorer Scribus =96 Desktop publishing Project Planner - Project =
management
GnuCash =96 Finance

Methodology

The organisations involved were invited to an initial session where they
were introduced to FOSS and Ubuntu Linux. They then all received a =
personal
training session at their own premises. After three months the =
organisations
were invited to submit an interim assessment of their use of the =
computers.
At the end of the project they were asked to fill in a questionnaire.

Assessment of results

Feedback from actual users was generally very positive regarding use of =
the
software. They found it intuitive and, with only occasional =
difficulties,
quickly adapted to its use. Many of them seemed very surprised at this =
and
at the range of good quality free software available. They had clearly =
been
influenced to believe this would not be the case, but soon overcome any =
such
prejudices.

Resistance to more general use of the software was however much stronger =
at
managerial and decision making level. There were a number of factors
involved:

* Strong resistance from some contracted technical support staff who saw =
it
as a threat to their entrenched monopoly position of using Microsoft
software. In at least two cases they put strong pressure on the
organisations involved to switch the computers to using Microsoft, =
making
clear that they would not supply any support for Linux and implying that
there were unstated dangers to mixing its use with Windows. This raised
fears with decision makers about being able to get longterm technical
support for Linux.

* Managerial staff often considered that they had invested so much money =
on
technical support and solving past problems that they felt that moves to
Linux would be a waste of the money already spent. Obviously people =
don=92t
change just for change sake and need good reasons to change to Linux =
from an
environment they have already heavily invested in. Linux desktop =
migration
is sometimes difficult when they have already heavily committed to a
Microsoft server environment, particularly if they are using Exchange
server.

* To a certain extent these problems were compounded by our own initial
approach to the project. We had initially envisaged, and indeed were =
funded,
to only supplying 10 desktop Linux computers for testing FOSS on a stand
alone basis. However, when the training visits to premises took place it
immediately became obvious that everyone was expecting us to integrate =
the
computers fully into existing networks and work environments. Without =
this
they were not really prepared to test the computers properly. We =
therefore
had to carry out a lot of additional work not originally envisaged =
without
adequate funding and resources. This meant we had to draw a line =
somewhere
on how far we could go with integrating the computers into existing =
network
systems and gave a false impression concerning the full capabilities of
Linux.

Despite these problems, in a number of cases managers were pleased to =
have
been made aware of FOSS as an alternative to proprietary software and =
said
they would certainly consider its use when making new major ICT =
investments
in future, providing the issue of good longterm technical support could =
be
dealt with.

Some conclusions