London council ditches Linux plans
Published: 06 Jan 2004 15:00 GMT
London's Newham Borough Council has ditched plans to move to an open source environment and will instead concentrate on negotiating a new deal with Microsoft that could act as a model for other public sector bodies.
The council had been involved in its own Linux trials last year with the Net Project group but council officers decided such a major migration would pose "unacceptable levels of risk" to council services.
Nor will Newham take part in the Office of Government Commerce open source trials with IBM, instead focusing its energies on talks with Microsoft.
Richard Steel, head of ICT at Newham, told silicon.com that while the council will continue to monitor open source, the time is not right for such a switch given Newham's complex IT environment.
"We got to the point where we understood the market for open source enough to make a decision. At this point in time the risks were too great," he said. "In terms of moving forward in other areas such as groupware, there were significant difficulties in migrating."
Steel said it is easier for "greenfield" IT sites to move to Linux than those with established and heterogeneous set-ups.
Newham currently has around 5,000 desktops running various operating systems and different versions of Microsoft Office but will be looking to standardise on Windows XP if negotiations with Microsoft go well.
"The goal from the start has been standardisation and that is part of the negotiations with Microsoft," said Steel. "It is interesting to see how Microsoft has reacted in the last six months. They have a much better understanding of the environment we have and the strategy and context, and that open source has a role in that."
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21 comments
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I hope they enjoy their choice of "vendor lockin". Tom Connelly -
"It is interesting to see how Microsoft has reacte... Jeff Davies
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I don't buy it. I think it's more a case of "I thi... Anonymous
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I don't think the tax payers will be greatful when... Magnus Grander
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It doesn't look like the strongest negotiaion stan... Craig Booth
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There are several possible explanations for this:... George Lazarette
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is this decision in relation of the support to ira... Anonymous
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This is outrageous to pay £3m of taxpayer’s money... Anonymous
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Its amazing how the hatred of Microsoft clounds no... Anonymous
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But it is either corrupt or stupid for a borough l... George Lazarette
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George Lazarette :" But it is either corrupt or s... Anonymous
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To anonymous New York Sales Person
Typical Ar... Jack Mac -
I see. No doubt it was rational arguments of this... George Lazarette
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From Newham council web site
http://apps.newham.go... Anonymous
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Most of the talk seems to be centered around not b... Anonymous
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OK Lets see:
Newham trials OSS and has viable plan... Jools
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OK, Bribe may be too strong a word.
Still think th... jools
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It is amazing that one place can find Linux more e... Mark Potochnik
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Here's an idea!
Let's just stop paying taxes and s... Peter Drinnan
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Lack of IT skills is the real problem with adaptio... Eugene Coetzee
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.. and now we have the great ASN.1 vulnerability t... David Delaney
