British town halls get the Linux bug

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 26 Apr 2000 07:02 BST

Brentwood and Bridgnorth Borough Councils have become the first public administrations in Britain to announce successful wide adoption of the Linux operating system.

These are also among the first instances of Linux public sector take-up within Europe.

"Linux is a first-class operating system that performs as well as, if not better than, NT and at a fraction of the cost," says Geoffrey Brambill, IT manager at Brentwood Borough Council in a statement.

He also hints that Linux could see wider adoption within the council: "We are currently evaluating Linux for an enterprise system that would traditionally have sat on NT. We could be installing Linux as an enterprise operating system within 12 months, a move that would save the tax payer a significant amount of money. Indeed, in the long-term, Linux could replace NT altogether."

Linux has become the preferred server operating system of these local authorities in conjunction with a deal to use Pick System D3 database technology.

Nigel Town, UK country manager at Pick Systems comments, "We have been recommending Linux to our customers in the public sector for some time now as the most logical and cost-effective way to upgrade their systems, especially those built on older Unix platforms."

Town concludes that the future could not be more rosy for Linux in Britain continuing, "I am sure that Bridgnorth and Brentwood will be the first of many public sector Linux installations to come."

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