| Government Linux |
A guest column by Harry LeBlanc
This guest opinion by Harry LeBlanc originated on the DesktopLinux.com discussion forum and is reproduced here with Mr. LeBlanc's permission . . .
Government Linux
I've noticed several articles recently about various governments switching to, promoting, or just including Linux / open source in their software procurement programs. The city of Largo, the German and South African governments, . . .
I don't know about where you live, but here in Minnesota there's much brouhaha about budget shortfalls, where will we get the savings so we don't have to cut education or roads, etc.
Wouldn't it be great to start a campaign to get our state and local governments to switch from Mickey to the Penguin? I wrote an email to Jesse Ventura, but it pretty much got ignored. But the current economic downturn, combined with the mud in Microsoft's eye due to the monopoly conviction, might create a golden opportunity to persuade our public "servants" to free our tax dollars currently being funneled to Redmond.
It would be very easy to run down a laundry list of common tools, both on the server side and on the desktop, and identify one or more easy replacements for free or cheap. For instance . . . - Windows NT/XP running IIS could be easily replaced by Linux running Apache & Tomcat
- Sql Server or Oracle could be replaced with Postgresql, MySql, etc.
- MS Office can be replaced with Star Office, Open Office, KOffice, Gnumeric, Abiword, etc etc etc.
- Outlook can be replaced with Evolution
. . . you guys know the drill. But most state politicians are probably completely ignorant of options available to the Microsoft oligarchy.
How many millions could we save in tax dollars -- not only this year, but in perpetuity? How robust would open source projects get if state MIS departments had programmers permanently on open source assignment?
How quickly could we get "obsolete" PCs into our schools, running X clients talking to one "modern" computer per classroom? We could actually put a computer on every student's desk!
Let's start a grass roots campaign to move all government computers to open source, free, robust, Linux-based software on the desktop and on the server.
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About the author: Harry LeBlanc has been a full time computer consultant for over 13 years, lately specializing in database-driven web-based applications (Oracle, Sql Server, Cold Fusion, j2ee) on a variety of platforms, including Linux, Solaris and HP-UX (as well as Windows). In addition to his geeky pursuits, Harry is a published science fiction author (you can find his story "Fiddler" here and a few more here) and a musician
(see this link on mp3.com). He's also interested in antique cars (he drives a 1936 Plymouth Deluxe when it isn't in the shop) and alternative
homebuilding techniques.
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