Re: [Fsfe-uk] GNU/Linux Desktops for UK Police?

[Alistair Davidson]

MJ Ray wrote:
> 
> Gareth Bowker:
> > I'd be interested to know more about the apps that need porting from
> > Windows to Linux and how netproject plan to do this, as this is an issue
> > that'll face many more companies that would like to make the switch. If
> > we had some sort of document to show the cost benefits of using Free
> > Software, including the costs of retraining and porting of apps, I think
> > this would be of great use. Does anyone know of any such documents that
> > have already been produced?
> 
> I think it's very hard to produce a general document covering this, as the
> range of possible Free Software is very large indeed.  You can find details
> of past studies by looking through the normal press and sometimes in the
> press releases of government organisations who have converted to Free
> Software.  Most of the ones I'm aware of that are in English are in the US
> at present (eg City of Largo).
> 
> The important things are to do an analysis for your particular situation
> before acting and make sure you have contingency plans, etc, in place.  Of
> course, you should be doing this before any project as major as an OS
> upgrade, but when the products of certain large companies are involved, CIOs
> and IT Directors become dangerously neglectful of planning and counting
> costs.  Many apps can be run under emulation, preferably WINE, or on a
> virtual or remote machine, if they are not able to be ported in a meaningful
> way soon enough.  External mission-critical apps for which you have neither
> a free licence nor a willing vendor are dangerous, but that's the same on
> any platform.

More importantly, WINE makes the process of porting immensely simpler. I
think this neatly emphasises the need to demand access to source when
comissioning custom software solutions.

--
Alistair Davidson