Dump Microsoft, Use Linux to Save Money, U.K. Officials Suggest

Bloomberg/BusinessWeek ^ | July 09, 2010 | Kitty Donaldson and Robert Hutton

[Willie Green]

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. government staff suggested replacing Microsoft Corp. operating systems on computers with free alternatives in response to a call for ideas for Prime Minister David Cameron’s cost-cutting drive.

Cameron asked the 600,000 government workers last month to make suggestions on saving money as his administration seeks to cut Britain’s record budget deficit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today published a sample of the 56,000 submitted ideas, which including abandoning Microsoft, switching office lights off and centralizing stationery procurement.

“In terms of spending less, what about migrating the whole of government (the NHS, education etc.) from Microsoft products to Linux and open-source software like Openoffice,” read one of the suggestions displayed on the Treasury website. Two of the 31 listed proposals, whose authors were not named, suggested dropping Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.

Open-source software such as Linux and Openoffice offers free or very cheap alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows and Office, the world’s most popular operating system and productivity software. Osborne said before the Conservatives won power in the May 6 election that he favored the idea.

“We need to follow the example of businesses all over the world and take advantage of open-source technology,” Osborne wrote in The Times of London in February 2009.

[eaglescout1998]

Somehow, I think the learning curve for a new operating system may be a little too steep for government employees.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It's OK for Bill Gates to want everybody to give away their money just like him, but don't you dare touch where his money comes from.

[snowsislander]

It’s certainly a good idea.

[donhunt]

Why? From my experience with them they don’t know much of anything anyway.

[bamahead]

ping!

[ShadowAce]

[Willie Green]

Somehow, I think the learning curve for a new operating system may be a little too steep for government employees.

Most goobermint employees would never know the difference.
They have some computer geek take care of that crap for them anyway.

[kevkrom]

Somehow, I think the learning curve for a new operating system may be a little too steep for government employees.

It's easy enough to make a Linux desktop look like a Windows machine -- at least close enough so that someone who's only using email, web, a word processor, and a spreadsheet won't notice the difference after a day or two.

[oh8eleven]

I think the learning curve for a new operating system may be a little too steep for government employees.
Sounds like a job for ...

[bigbob]

Hey Brits, why not stop buying Dells, HPs, and the rest and buy “Windsor” or “Royal” PCs instead? What, there *aren’t* any British PC manufacturers?? No major software purveyors either?? Well then sure, go ahead and screw and American business!

I’m not a huge Microsoft fan and think Linux will have a growing role, but bristle at the idea of Brit Gummint lackeys poking the stick in the eye of a US company.

[microgood]

The only problem I see is that Open Office totally sucks.

[napscoordinator]

Actually he gives a ton of money away. Unfortunately it is not to places we want the money to go.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Actually he gives a ton of money away. Unfortunately it is not to places we want the money to go.

I know he does. That's what I said. He wants everybody else to, also.

[Tribune7]

Nothing to stop the Brits from making their own open source alternative.

I've found Open Office (and NeoOffice) to really suck on Macs but it isn't all that bad on Ubuntu. It's certainly worth the price :-)

[napscoordinator]

Well he can want all he wants but I write the checks in my household and do you in your household. I could care less what he wants. I like Microsoft but I don’t like him much.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

He wants rich guys to give it all away to Commies and tinhorn dicatators.

[napscoordinator]

I know. It is crazy. I wish liberals would lose half their beliefs. We would be in much better shape. BTW, I mean as do you not and do you in my last post.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Why? Do you think they owe Microsoft a living or something? The British government has a responsibility to provide the best value for money for the British taxpayer, and the likes of Microsoft and any other company, foreign or domestic should provide a service that is good enough and at the right price for it to be advantageous for the customer to pay the money asked for it. If not, the customer can and should take his business elsewhere, especially when the customer is using taxpayers money like mine to pay for it.
Its a pretty basic free-market capitalist principle. What you are suggesting is a socialist principle without even the benefit of subsidising jobs for British workers. I’ll be damned if I want to pay for corporate welfare for foreign companies like Microsoft and Dell...

[pyx]

Somehow, I think the learning curve for a new operating system may be a little too steep for government employees.

I'm not sure I follow you.

As it is now; on a non-Linux system such as MS Windows;

Almost all employees who use a computer, whether government or private typically, 1.) Log on to a system using his name and a password. 2.) Uses word processing software or uses spreadsheet software or uses database software and may use web browsing software to access the web or email. Or may use specialized email software to access email.

On a Linux system;

Almost all employees who use a computer, whether government or private typically, 1.) Log on to a system using his name and a password. 2.) Uses word processing software or uses spreadsheet software or uses database software and may use web browsing software to access the web or email. Or may use specialized email software to access email.

Using the same computer for doing the same work and from a user's perspective, doing that work in the same way using Linux would not make a "steep learning curve" in my opinion.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

BTW, you do realise that British companies like MESH and AMSTRAD also manufacture PCs don’t you? As with American companies like DELL (who manufacture PCs in Ireland for the EU market), they use chips and components manufactured in Taiwan....

[pyx]

The only problem I see is that Open Office totally sucks.

I personally have Open Office v3.2.1 as well as both MS Office 2003 and 2007 versions and I don't see a lot of difference between the two.

So please specifically state why Open Office v3.2.1 sucks.

[pyx]

I have found a lot of difference between MS Office 2003 and MS Office 2007 versions.

[Willie Green]

The only problem I see is that Open Office totally sucks.

Abiword/Gnumeric is all I need.

[Wurlitzer]

The only downside I have experienced is OO does take more time to launch the first time each day and you cannot cleanly import a Access database but I now use OO for all my new databases so that downside is no problem.

Open Office help us out when someone sent my wife an Excel 2007 file which she could not read in Excel 2003. I just opened it with Open Office, saved it in Excel 97 (nothing in the original file used any new features).

[Dr. Sivana]

I personally have Open Office v3.2.1 as well as both MS Office 2003 and 2007 versions and I don't see a lot of difference between the two.

I use both, and WordPerfect/Quattro as well.

If you want to talk about "learning curve," a user of Office 2003 will have less difficulty switching to OpenOffice 3.x than to MS Office 2007 and later, due to the idiotic and unasked for "command ribbon."

[microgood]

So please specifically state why Open Office v3.2.1 sucks.

Well maybe sucks is too strong a word, but I tend to use the more advanced features of Excel or Word which Open Office does not support.

One of the main drawbacks is that it is incompatible with Office 2007 xlsx and docx formats. In addition, Office provides a richer API interface, and with OpenXML and the new collaboration features in 2010

Also in 2010, there is an add in to excel called PowerPivot which will be highly useful for our analytics team to mine huge amounts of data just using Excel.

I also like the tight integration with Sharepoint where collaboration becomes really powerful. .

Considering I spend all day on a computer, it seems like it's not alot of money to shell out every three years to get the best cutting edge productivity software in the world, considering the cost of labor.

That said, I am not a fan of Office Online, as many features are missing and like all web apps, is not comparable to a rich client experience.

[microgood]

If you want to talk about "learning curve," a user of Office 2003 will have less difficulty switching to OpenOffice 3.x than to MS Office 2007 and later, due to the idiotic and unasked for "command ribbon."


That was indeed a painful transition, but I think overall it is an advance from the complex menu system and control keys that also drove me crazy.

[palmer]

My analogy is running Windows is like riding the train, potentially faster and easier but only goes to certain places. Linux is like driving a car. You have to do more work, but you can go wherever you want.

[Dr. Sivana]

That was indeed a painful transition, but I think overall it is an advance from the complex menu system and control keys that also drove me crazy.

They could have had both, with an option to choose (like they did with the W2K desktop when XP came out). I find the ribbon arrangement poorly thought out. Every time I get a Microsoft anything, I have to go in and turn off context menus. Actually, whenever I install Windows, I find myself go against about 80% of Microsoft's default options.

[Dr. Sivana]

One of the main drawbacks is that it is incompatible with Office 2007 xlsx and docx formats.

So you're the one who buys the newest edition of MS-Anything as soon as it comes out and starts sending attachments in a new proprietary format? Ever since Access 97 auto converted Access 95 and didn't let you change back, I have raised my fist, waving it in the general direction of Redmond, muttering mild expletives under my breath.

Oh, and Microsoft has had 13 years to include the WordPerfect WPD and 10 years for Quattro 9 and up, and they haven't seen fit to do that. Nor do they make it easy for other companies to backward engineer the newer formats as they come.

[microgood]

They could have had both, with an option to choose (like they did with the W2K desktop when XP came out).

Correct, they should have done this.

I find the ribbon arrangement poorly thought out.

Considering everyone looks at it differently, it is probably hard to come out with a universally loved layout, and although I hated them at first, with a few graphical separators, you can represent the relationships between the actions a little better than with structured menus. This actually really stands out in applications like Project, where there are a bunch of distinct actions sharing a common ribbon tab, and you can kind of see the hierarchy and interdependence between actions.

[tacticalogic]

Hey Brits, why not stop buying Dells, HPs, and the rest and buy “Windsor” or “Royal” PCs instead? What, there *aren’t* any British PC manufacturers??

Old joke:

Q: Why don't the British build computers?

A: They can't figure out how to make them leak oil.

[microgood]

So you're the one who buys the newest edition of MS-Anything as soon as it comes out and starts sending attachments in a new proprietary format? Ever since Access 97 auto converted Access 95 and didn't let you change back, I have raised my fist, waving it in the general direction of Redmond, muttering mild expletives under my breath.

It kind of depends on what we are doing. We were late adopters of Office 2007 because of docx and xlsx issues, but we jumped on 2010 in Beta because we wanted features they had that were pain free (especially collaboration) and were building some features around it in conjunction with SharePoint.

[Moonman62]

Linux has its uses, but I can see where a switch like this can lose money in the long run.

[pyx]

Well maybe sucks is too strong a word, but I tend to use the more advanced features of Excel or Word which Open Office does not support.

Two separate questions; Which specific advanced features of MS Excel and which specific advanced features of MS Word are not supported by Open Office version 3.2.1 ?