__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Thursday 23 February 2006 15:20 \__
> begin oe_protect.scr
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=882
>>
>> "The South African Revenue Service (SARS) issued a tender (RFT 37/2005)
>> for a proof of concept Linux desktop solution for the tax-collecting
>> government department on 17 February. While SARS admits that the
>> challenge of moving to Linux on the desktop is great, a successful
>> proof of concept could see 14 000 desktops running Microsoft Windows
>> XP SP2 migrated to Linux."
>>
>> Linux among governmental bodies is always exceptionally encouraging news.
>
> Interesting observation. Civil servants tend to be amongst the most
> conservative in terms of technical change, so as you say, to see so many
> governments looking at leaving vendor lock-in behind them is very
> encouraging. Linux is an excellent way of avoiding the vendor lock-in
> of Microsoft and other solutions.
...and as governments must be able to exchange data and communicate among
*themselves*, dependencies will potentially be shattered (positively so).
Sooner or later, no governmental worker will be sending Office files or
expect a connection via proprietary protocols. The shackles will be broken
to pieces.
About 3 months ago, South Africa expressed its intention of moving to Open
Source entirely. It was then that Ballmer packed up his suitcase and grabbed
the next plane, probably realising the important of this key event.
Evidently, his efforts were less than fruitful.
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "In hell, treason is the work of angels"
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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