Enterprise open source Toolkit

Story: Gov't open-source guidelines ignored, says Ingres

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Why are we not surprised?

Now, there's a shock - politicians compiling excellent-looking documents on money-saving ideas that voters would be happy to see them implement, but in the end there's utterly no change from the status quo. The leader of the opposition was making big noises about FOSS as if he even knew what the acronym stands for, but that was at a time when there was speculation that Gordon Brown may have called an election. Since no election was called for and considerable time has passed, no politicians are talking about FOSS.

All that politicians are good at is politicking. If you expect more than that you'll be disappointed. As far as implementing FOSS solutions is concerned, there just aren't enough support engineers with Linux skills in Britain. I was one of the MS-is-the-only-operating-system brigade - I used to dismiss Linux as an old "has been" system until someone put an Ubuntu 6 disk in my hand a few years ago. Existing engineers who support Microsoft-based networks, especially here in Britain, do not want to learn any other system. I doubt whether the House of Commons could even find a support company to handle their change over. Someone who knows what it's all about would have to lead them. Now, politicians are hardly known for their willingness to be led by some lesser creatures like us, are they?

As Billy Connolly said: "The desire to be a politician should mean that they are automatically barred from ever being one" and: "Don't vote for them - it'll only encourage them".

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