Bristol Wireless Wiki - Linux Reportsand Press

Links to government and industry reports on Linux

Local

Bristol City Council is to transform its desktop computer systems by switching over 5,000 users from the authority's existing mixture of Corel Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Office software to Sun Microsystems' integrated Star Office 7 suite. The change will save the council some £1.4 million over the next five years as part of its ongoing drive to identify efficiency savings and will help it meet the government's requirements for improved efficiency in the public sector as set out in the Gershon Review. The council's decision heralds one of the biggest public sector commitments to Star Office to date and one of the most significant migrations from Microsoft products in the UK. One of the UK's Core Cities, Bristol is the eighth largest in the country and employs the largest workforce in the South West. http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/PressReleaseViewer/viewer.html?pressReleaseId=236418

National (UK)

Kent Police Authority has installed Linux technology to reduce IT costs and expand services. Andy Barker, head of IT at Kent Police , says the architecture has allowed the force to double its infrastructure to more than 4,000 desktops in the past two years without expanding support. http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2160217/kent-police-switch-linux

Open source is increasingly being favoured by government who have found open source is "viable and credible for infrastructure and for meeting the requirements of the majority of desktop users" The government recommends that public sector bodies should "examine carefully the technical and business case" for OSS implementation, consider it for server consolidation, and consider the potential costs and benefits of migration to an OSS desktop" http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?docid=2190

Open source software is making inroads into the voluntary sector. Dan Mc Quillan of Lasa's Information Systems Team and the Multikulti project highlights the potential, the pitfalls and some proposals for the future. http://www.lasa.org.uk/knowledgebase/pages/opensourceonmap.shtml

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) compared Information and Communication Technology deployments in 48 schools for adequacy and cost. Their findings, published as "Open Source Software in Schools," cautiously favour Open Source Software (OSS) alternatives to proprietary software. The project found that Open Source software "can provide a suitable technical infrastructure and a basic set of applications for classroom use." Somewhat surprisingly, the report also states that Open Source "productivity" applications were perceived as "easier or simpler to use" than proprietary equivalents. Also, staff surveys revealed an overall higher rate of satisfaction with reliability and performance in the OSS schools than in the non-OSS schools. Less surprisingly, the report discovered that the total cost of ownership (TCO) at OSS schools -- evaluated over the course of three years on seven points -- was 20 to 50 per cent less per PC. Schools implementing Open Source alternatives spent up to 50 per cent less on support and training than "non-OSS" schools. full report: http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/press_out.cfm?id=4681

The National Computing Centre is the UK's leading IT membership organisation, serving corporate, vendor and government communities. New research conducted by the National Computing Centre and Atos Consulting, the consulting arm of Atos Origin, has revealed growing acceptance and planned take-up of Open Source, despite current caution Over 50% have either adopted or are planning to adopt Open Source Over 55% either accept or include Open Source in a tender Over 30% believe advice on technical strategy is the service that would assist them most with their adoption of Open Source Over 60% believe that Open Source will either increase its presence in certain business areas or be a fundamental component in core IT systems Over 73% expect Open Source to develop within their organisation's IT strategy over the next five years http://principia.vbnlive.com/pooled/articles/BF_WEBART/view.asp?Q=BF_WEBART_172373

Supranational

2/2/06 Open Source software makes inroads at majority of corporations according to an Optaros study, which found that the clear majority of organizations (87%) were using open source systems, software often available for free and built by communities of software developers. In 2004 large companies saved an average $3.3 million and medium-sized companies $1.1 million by using Open Source instead of packaged software. Full report at: http://www.optaros.com/np/company_news_12-19-05.shtml

13/12/05 The government of Switzerland is to replace the software in 3,000 of its servers with the SUSE Linux operating system. Operational efficiency and cost were key factors driving the Swiss government's decision to move to Linux, according to Novell. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3995951203.html

6/12/05 Macedonia may be well known for its place in books on ancient history, but it's now on the cutting edge of desktop Linux adoption. The Republic of Macedonia decided to deploy about 5,000 Linux desktop computers in 468 public schools and 182 computer labs nationwide last summer, based on a Ubuntu distribution with a GNOME desktop, the GNOME Journal reports. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8560939207.html

1/12/05 The belief that Linux is mainly used as a developer tool was shattered by a survey conducted by the Open Source Development Lab's Desktop Linux Working Group, which cited employer demand as the top reason, closely followed by the need to keep up with competitors who are using Linux. The survey suggests a cultural shift has occurred among business, with many now willing to seriously consider open source. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39239296,00.htm full report http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5481370522.html

17/11/05 Open Source: now it's an ecosystem. This software movement is branching into not just mainstream business applications but also the associated services. And venture capitalists are eager to help... http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc2005103_0519_tc_218.htm

15/11/05 The last few Top500 Supercomputer Site lists left little doubt that Linux is the operating system of choice for these bleeding edge systems, but the latest list highlights the popularity of Linux in supercomputing and cites it as the OS of choice for 78% of the world's fastest machines. 391 of the systems rely on Linux of one flavour or another http://hardware.newsforge.com/hardware/05/11/15/1443249.shtml?tid=152&tid=32

26/10/05 Linux is proving increasingly popular with governments across the world, with New Zealand's Inland Revenue becoming the latest government department to test the open source operating system. The Inland Revenue is trialling the software on some of its 7,000 desktops, according to reports, as part of a review of the department's IT strategy that should be completed in 2006. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39233340,00.htm

While FOSS has become more accepted, there is a lack of understanding on its benefits, policy implications and resources available to Governments to implement FOSS solutions. FOSS software refers to applications and operating systems with open source codes for other parties to review, comment, refine, and extend. Very often this model includes a bug reporting process and is often quoted as a good model for producing resilient software http://www.iosn.net/about/ http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ecdr2003ch4_en.pdf (large document)

Industry also understands Linux offers many potential benefits compared to Windows. IBM says Linux is known for providing excellent uptime, optimal security and a resistance to attacks that often allow it to run without interruption for as long as the hardware is working. Ever used google.com and amazon.com? they use linux. Even microsoft have used linux for their web servers!

As of October 2005 69.89% of webservers were running on open source software, whereas Microsoft had 20.55% of the market. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html