6 ms·
"... and hire people to build out the main infrastructure they need." There's a reason Microsoft was successful for years: they built turn-key solutions, and a
by ethbro 7y ago
"... and hire people to build out the main infrastructure they need."
There's a reason Microsoft was successful for years: they built turn-key solutions, and added new turn-key features their customers requested.
Switching from that sort of IT to a linux-based, 'we need a system architect' model doesn't happen overnight. There's organization shift, cultural shift, firing unneeded people who won't retrain, retraining people who are worth it, and hiring talent to fill gaps.
Not to mention that talent's more expensive and less easily certified (e.g. all the official MS rubber stamp programs).
Not impossible, but it's a LOT of work. With dubious chances of success.
- teh_klev 7y agoBasically Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This is something people forget about. OS and app licenses are likely a drop in the ocean compared to the operating costs of supporting your infrastructure (regardless of whether it runs on Windows or Linux). [edit: TOC -> TCO]
- ethbro 7y agoTOC seems to conveniently leave out risk as a factor too. At least at the sales level. And yet the amount of failed systems migrations I've seen... If I have a 50% chance to cut my IT budget by 15%, if I remake my org, is it worth it?
- teh_klev 7y agoI've seen some spectacular cockups over the years and eye watering sums of money burned because no-one factored in risk properly. And they more often than not happen on government projects, and usually some big name consultancy is heavily involved - Capita, PwC et-al.
- ethbro 7y agoHaving worked the consultant gig for a bit, we never talked about risk. Honestly, because most customers sponsoring projects were morons. If you told them there was a 25% chance of failure, they'd go with someone else who claimed a 0% chance of failure. I finally decided most of this was just sponsors covering their ass. If they initiated a project with risk and it failed, that reflected on them. If they initiated a project and the consultants claimed (winkwinknudgenudge) there's no risk, then if it failed those lying consultants were the only ones to blame.
- supercanuck 7y agoThis is pretty much the reason consultants exist. They are the employee's risk insurance.
- pergadad 7y agoOr just not the right expertise to launch and manage such a contract. Sadly really difficult for government to hire the right expertise - either hiring procedures are too complicated (equitable!) or slow (thorough!) or not interested (salaries not competitive as citizens would be outraged about gov paying high salaries for high expertise).
- danieldk 7y agoTCO was also a big part of the marketing campaign of Microsoft against Linux in the late 90ies, early 00s. A big difference compared to one or two decades ago is that a lot of domain-specific services have moved to web applications. So, there are probably a lot of machines out there that are just glorified web browsing machines. Also, the popularity of iOS and Android have made more applications cross-platform. Of course, once Office documents or legacy Win32 applications are part of the equation, you can't really beat Windows. It is a common misconception that LibreOffice could replace Office. I use a Linux desktop and a MacBook and most of the Word/Excel paperwork that I have to do (luckily irregularly) does not open correctly in LibreOffice. Of course, it is an uphill battle for the LO folks.
- mycall 7y agoLinux workstations, Office 365 -- skip LibreOffice.
- wowtip 7y agoIn my experience O365 office web applications are no competition even for Libre/OpenOffice. Has that changed lately?
- DataWorker 7y agoI’ve switched to libreoffice from excel and find it totally viable as an excel replacement except for lack of vba support, but it has its own scripting language so even that isn’t a deal breaker. It’s just so much faster and less bloated than today’s excel.
- zepearl 7y agoUnluckily in my case Libreoffice Calc (using it privately) is a lot slower when using formulas than MS Excel (using it for work).
- loup-vaillant 7y agoFor most users, "replacement" mean it can open and edit Microsoft's documents perfectly. For some users, it even means the GUI is just about the same so they don't feel lost. By that criteria (which are real criteria from real people), the only viable replacement for Microsoft Office, is the next version of Microsoft Office. The only way to break out of this, I think, is for governments to forbid themselves to use proprietary software that was not developed on their own soil. Because let's face it, it's not really about money (especially not about short term money). It's more about national security, sovereignty, and freedom.
- luckydata 7y agoNot to mention it's a LOT of work that needs to be coordinated by someone with the vision and skill to make it happen. People like that are not exactly common in the public administration of any country.
- ethbro 7y agoMostly because government and small-scale enterprise balk at the salaries they command. Income inequality is a concern, and some people are certainly overpaid. But at the C* or technical architect level, the cost of pinching pennies is dominated by the cost of choosing a wrong direction (or not recognizing a changing situation and correcting quickly enough).
- pergadad 7y agoPublic sector salaries are simply set a certain way - through a political process, covering all employees. There is little leeway to give higher/lower salaries to a few as that smells like cronyism. You can't negotiate a gov salary, except for externals.
- duxup 7y agoYeah finding talent and making good choices way outside what your traditional IT competency is pretty risky.