Spain Prepares For 14,000-User Linux Installation 18
rafael_es_son writes "The regional Health Service of Extremadura, Spain (Servicio Extremeño de Salud) prepares for what IBM describes as the country's biggest GNU/Linux rollout to date. IBM is to receive $33.8 million USD over a four year period for the development of systems which should enable some 14,000 doctors and other medical professionals access to patient health care data on a region currently described as underserved in comparison with the rest of the country." (Read more below.)
"The current biggest European implementation title-holder, German National Railway, cites 'continuous cost savings, greater flexibility and integration benefits' as reason for changing over to GNU/Linux-based solutions. The German National Railway GNU/Linux implementation currently boasts approximately 55,000 users, in comparison to the current Munich implementation of 14,000 desktops.
We of course know better: Interoperability and Open Source are not synonymous."
Re:Interoperability (Score:1, Interesting)
Also, though not quantifiable, the fast development cycle that open-source is often praised for could lead to broken interoperability if the developers of an open source application do not feel like maintaining the function. The typical reply is that the code is opensource, so you can modify it and put the functions you want back in.
Can you give any examples of this happening? The only one I can think of is the Linux kernel itself and its interface for kernel modules. Every other project I can think of (GNOME, KDE, GCC, etc) tends to maintain API stability across minor releases, and only remove APIs after it has been deprecated for at least one major release.
There is of course another thing to take into account - we don't have the "DLL hell" of Windows; having two versions of a library installed is no big deal.
Re:Interoperability (Score:5, Interesting)
When the four years are up, if they didn't like the IBM experience, they could pay someone else, and not lose all of their previous investment.
If astute, they can be training staff to "insource" the work at the end of the support period. Then they will be in the somewhat enviable position of maintaining and using their own (working) system to their longterm evolving needs.
At least in theory ...