On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 8:33 AM, Thad Van Ry <<a href="mailto:tvanry@gmail.com">tvanry@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="Ih2E3d">On 4/13/08, Clay Moultrie <<a href="mailto:clay.osi@gmail.com">clay.osi@gmail.com</a>> wrote: >      So I've been thinking, what would it really take to get government, local or state to embrace open source? </div>I used to be a member of the Woods Cross City Council. I suggested the use of Open Source a couple of times within our city and I'd like to tell you about some of the hurdles I ran into. First and foremost, Microsoft offers a great price on their software to governments and educational institutions. This makes it so the difference in price isn't as great as you would think, especially when you factor in some things which I'll highlight. Second, governments use a lot of proprietary software that is built for a specific purpose. (Think about dispatching software for police, streets, and parks departments. Also think about co-ordination of software across the country such as with the Amber Alert.) On a local level, tech support was provided by a consultant. Linux consultants, on average, were quite a bit more expensive than Windows consultants. On a state level, I'm sure it would mean re-training to hundreds of desktop technical support reps. This has to factor in to the price difference, which as I mentioned, is already low. The next hurdle and probably the hardest to overcome is the familiarity of the Microsoft Office Suite to the employees. On a local level, the employees of Woods Cross City had several macros already built in both Word and Excel. You now have to figure in the amount to pay somebody to come in and convert those macros into an Open Source product. If you can't convert those macros, you end up with unhappy employees. In a government setting keeping employees happy in any way you can was very important, because, you can't usually do it with high salaries. Needless to say, I wasn't successful in our city. I'm not saying it isn't possible, or shouldn't be done. I'm just trying to point out the very large hurdles that will have to be overcome. </blockquote><div> I'd like to point out that the Utah State government has been rolling out Linux for some time now.  I teach state employees on occasion who indicate that its going well.  It just takes some time to 'come in under the gap in the door' and establish itself.  Once its there, its harder to remove.  Keep pushing it in, and they'll take it when they realize a lot of the other benefits.  That, and when their license renewal comes up, its easier to let them look around, and Linux is an attractive option. Cheers, Clint </div></div>