[ubuntu-uk] Open formats in UK gov?

[Nigel Verity]

The example of the City of Munich is certainly encouraging but the difference in scale between the Munich administration and the UK government is many orders of magnitude.

My own view is that there will never be a single strategic decision to move UK government IT infrastructure from Microsoft technololgies to FLOSS alternatives, but that doesn't mean the goal will never be achieved.

Hoping for Windows to be replaced by Linux on the basis of simple substitution is possibly an out-dated aspiration. Although it's a very long process, and often poorly implemented, an increasing amount of government IT is moving from the desktop to the intranet. At some point, this should result in users being able to complete all their tasks using Chromebook-type devices, where the device OS is of little strategic importance. Likewise, the OS running on the server will become less important. There could well come a time when government IT managers are in a position to choose the right OS for the job.

Nige

> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open formats in UK gov?
> From: a75576 at alumni.tecnun.es
> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 06:32:10 +0000
> To: ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com; nigelverity at hotmail.com; ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> 
> 
> 
> On 29 de enero de 2014 23:24:16 GMT, Nigel Verity <nigelverity at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >I think that standardising on open formats is a significant step but it
> >is a long, long way from seeing the likes of LibreOffice running on the
> >typical civil servant's desktop. Without exception, the big UK
> >government FM contracts for IT provision and support are all let to
> >companies with a huge vested interest in maintaining their relationship
> >with Microsoft. If all that's being opened up is the use of ODF,
> >Microsoft will point out that they support ODF, though their
> >implementation is far from perfect, but that's no different from
> >LibreOffice's implementation of the DOCX format.
> >
> >In schools and elsewhere people are not taught "word processing". They
> >are taught explicitly how to use MS Word. Likewise with "spreadsheets"
> >and Excel. Although for most people the transition to LibreOffice would
> >be fairly trivial, the civil service would insist that everyone is
> >given conversion training. Microsoft could reasonably point to a high
> >cost of migration which, combined with the cost of Office pared back to
> >cost price or less, would see the company able to maintain its
> >stranglehold on government IT procurement. Civil servants can already
> >buy personal copies of Office Pro for well under £20. Think of the
> >price the government would get when ordering half a million copies.
> >
> >Nige 		 	   		  
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Didn't the city of Munich start with this some years ago? Now they seem to be almost completely on the other side.  
> 
> -- 
> Enviado desde mi teléfono con K-9 Mail.

 		 	   		  
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