How is the UK doing for Open Source Adoption? 38
munchola writes "CBRonline has put together an article looking at the state of open source adoption in the UK , bringing together data on central government policy and adoption within local government, public services, education, and the private sector. While overall the transition to OSS has been successful, there have been a few setbacks." From the article: "Not all of the organisations involved in the open source proof of concept trials have proceeded with open source adoption, however. In particular, the Central Scotland Police dealt a blow to open source supporters in August 2005 when it abandoned Linux and Sun's StarOffice in favour of Windows. The police force moved to StarOffice in 2000 and later adopted Linux for a new Area Command office at Falkirk. It also worked with IBM Corp to adopt Linux for a server-based document management system to meet Freedom of Information Act requirements, claiming savings of between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds ($36,000 and $54,000) over five years on hardware costs."
Re:c++ elitism? (Score:2, Interesting)
However, I would also argue that at least a basic understanding of C/C++ is also needed by graduates. It shouldn't have to be one or the other. Ideally, I'd say that graduates need Java, C/C++, possibly some microsoft
Depends... (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest hurdle is the users, I tried letting people have a go with a Linux distro, OpenOffice etc and the first thing they said was "Where's publisher?" and "How do I use this digital camera (with locked drivers for Windows)" etc etc. Far too many problems. Plus we have a fair few Access databases.
For those who only needed Word, Excel and a few other things I tried giving them OpenOffice but they just moaned and asked for the "Standard Microsoft" products.
For a while we've been using Mozilla Thunderbird, but as more and more people are needing access to their email remotely, and IMAP is far from brilliant in said client (folders refusing to delete properly and other such niggles) I think Exchange and Outlook are not far off the horizon. Simply because, dare I say it on Slashdot, Micrsoft software is generally the easiest to use in the eyes of the non-computer-literate. [With the exception of Office 2007 beta as it stands, that's bloody awful to use]
I'd love to go OSS and I'm sure in an organisation with slightly more intelligent staff it wouldn't be a problem. But this lot at my place are *very* easily confused. A shining example would be one guy today, who panicked that his box was "going beebeebeebeebeebeebeep". I went to his desk and found a ring binder sat on the keyboard. Another one, a little while ago but still there, was desparately trying to shove a floppy in a Zip drive. These are the kind of people I have to deal with, so any less-than-minor change would have them baffled for months. Trying to tell them how to do all the various workarounds and procedures usually needed in OSS software to do various things that are point-and-click in Windows is out of the question really.
The only OSS app which *has* gone down well is Firefox, perhaps because it's got a very familiar/intuitive interface for ex-IE users, it's feature-complete (I've seen so many OSS alternatives that can only be described as half-finished) and generally very well written. The staff love not having to deal with malware, popups and self-installers, even if it does take an age to load in comparison with IE.
Who knows, maybe the situation will improve eventually... but right now the demand is for "Standard Microsoft" software and giving them alternatives just tends to upset them.
Re:c++ elitism? (Score:1, Interesting)
Personally I agree that Java is the best language for learning OOP. Unfortunately, OOP is just not the best thing to learn. CS is about teaching the whole of Computer Science, and OOP is a small part of CS. It's a real shame that Java doesn't support any programming paradigms other than OOP otherwise it'd actually be quite a useful language for teaching CS, or writing real software in, for exactly the reasons you give.
Sun missed the boat there, I think.
It's certainly ridiculous to expect undergraduate students of Computer Science to actually learn about how strings and memory and CPUs work, I agree there. Really CS should just be a vocational course on computer programming, not some kind of "academic study" of computing verging on mathematics. It's as if they assume that someone committing 3 years of serious study to CS would actual know how to program already or something.
Re:c++ elitism? (Score:2, Interesting)
The change is beginning - I know of at least one university that teaches its MSc students on machines running Fedora (since I helped introduce it into the labs) and I know of courses that use both Python and Ruby as first languages. I also know that my local primary school has ignored all attempts to introduce open source, in spite of being presented with the BECTA report. Should we not be expecting all our educational institutions to be leading the way on this issue?