Yeah, my thoughts regarding this are a bit ambivalent.

I always hate to see bumps in the road regarding open source applications and OS's but then I do know how stable MS has been able to make their most recent offerings.

Hi there
I'm ALWAYS sceptical when I read about these sorts of projects.

Any Government project in the KNOWN UNIVERSE is always riddled with beaurocracy, Political shenanigans, Nepotism, and just sheer Bad Management -- even in a legendary efficient country such as Switzerland.

Generally a wholesale migration project to Linux makes NO sense -- it always depends on what the end result is expected to achieve.

Usually the pressure is on to reduce up front costs WITHOUT REGARD TO ANYTHING ELSE and this is where disaster usually strikes.

There's a LOT more involved than just paying fewer dollars for the software.

Linux may be perfectly suitable for some places as a desktop OS but I would imagine in busy government offices it could be a DISASTER zone since the calls on Help desk etc etc would swamp the whole system.

Also most of the access of facilities of these govt services would be done by people with Windows Machines so another level of service complexity here too.

Finally in a large organisation people would be using things like ESS (Employee Self Service) via ERP / Portal software like SAP and usually this stuff needs a Windows GUI on the front end even if the undelying Database servers etc can run on Linux.

ESS for those who don't know is a facility in a large organisation for Employees requesting leave, swapping shifts, booking travel expenses, arrange training courses (internal or external) and a whole slew of stuff more. It can really reduce the amount of paperwork in large depts such as Government services.

Cheers
jimbo

Tews said:

I believe that this shows how much MS has improved Windows... is this a coming trend??

No!

Open source is gaining (industry) market share at a greater rate than windows 7.
Most companies I deal with have no intention of upgrading to W7 and are looking at opensource alternatives.

As I work with Oracle I am seeing this more and more especially where a company already has a Unix platform. In roads are small, open office insted of MS, Zimbra instead of Outlook, and use of Linux to run some new installations, but Linux/ Open source is growing.

Nigsy said:

Tews said:

I believe that this shows how much MS has improved Windows... is this a coming trend??

No!

Open source is gaining (industry) market share at a greater rate than windows 7.
Most companies I deal with have no intention of upgrading to W7 and are looking at opensource alternatives.

As I work with Oracle I am seeing this more and more especially where a company already has a Unix platform. In roads are small, open office insted of MS, Zimbra instead of Outlook, and use of Linux to run some new installations, but Linux/ Open source is growing.

Hi there
Absolutely true for small manageable businesses and also for Start up or new ones too -- but there is a HUGE difference in this type of operation compared with Government Service in a major country such as Switzerland.

Different systems entirely. This is an area where a "One size fits all" Cannot possibly work.

Large organisations need the consistency of proven software and the ability to get it fixed when (and if) it goes wrong.

They can't take the chance on whether xxxxx who is reponsible for a piece of open software has been drinking at the pub last night so won't be able to look at the problem for a day or two.

Nothing wrong with Open Source where applicable and I always support it on Linux too -- but there are conditions where this is simply not practicable and the example made by the OP was one of them.

Cheers
jimbo