Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Jim Relsh on Friday 14 December 2007 08:42 : \____
>
>>
>> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:2211280.9LdVGQltc9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> ____/ NoStop on Friday 14 December 2007 02:51 : \____
>>>
>>>> December 13, 2007 at 1:52 PM EST
>>>>
>>>> AMSTERDAM - The Dutch government has set a soft deadline of April 2008
>>>> for
>>>> its agencies to start using open-source software - freely distributed
>>>> programs that anyone can modify - the Netherlands Economic Affairs
>>>> Ministry
>>>> said Thursday.
>>>>
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/3ae3ey
>>>>
>>
>> I personally believe this isn't groundbreaking stuff. First off all, the
>> civil servants would be able to wiggle their way out of it by simply using
>> the OOXML-to-ODF converter. In fact, this policy could even jump-start sales
>> of Office 2007 since the converter only works in Office 2007!
>>
>> I'd be much more impressed if the Dutch government mandates that all
>> desktops switch over to Linux, maybe running some Windows program in a
>> virtual machine for the time being. That would *really* be earth-shattering
>> news. So far there are very few mass-migrations in Western nations to Linux,
>> and that's disappointing.
>
> What about the French and Italian government moving to Linux on the desktop and
> the server (to give just a couple of recent examples)?
>
Migration is evolution is small, steady, steps. Only the naive attempt
huge change in complex systems, because it *seems* easier, but is in
reality much more difficult, since it is prone to unknown problems and
challenges, whereas evolution and migration is subject to many knowns,
so is apparently more difficult, but in fact, this is because the
problems can be more readily predicted, and therefore worked around.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
