[ILUG] Government use of OSS

[Lisa Muir]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Gerard Cunningham <lists at faduda.net> wrote:
>
>> Anyone got an estimate of how much the government might save
>> if it went over to open source software?
>
> On a not quite related topic, does anyone here know anything about the
> Garda PULSE system. I'm assuming its not open source, and since
> Accenture are the main providors/maintainers I can find from a google
> search, I'm guessing it's custom built. The only cost figures I can find
> is from a PQ a few years ago giving an annual cost of 12Million. I'm
> wondering how comparable this (and other computing needs of the force,
> desktops, portables) would be to the French experience.

I was under the impression that PULSE was provided by Esat telecom as
part of a deal where Esat got to use every garda station as a mobile
phone tower. I do recall seeing the familiar solaris screensaver
running at the local barracks one day (like 9 years ago), which would
hint at solaris x86. I also vaguely recall the deal going pear shaped
which might explain why there is talk here of VB4 and Microsoft
involvement.

So... in your digging, you could well find that there were limited
hardware costs, and an original software system funded by a telecoms
third party, with the software system being replaced at a later stage
at the cost of the taxpayer. In such deals where windows would replace
a non windows solution, you could well expect extremely heavily
discounted microsoft licences for OS software, maybe even free, just
to kill oposing OS vendors case studies and replace them with an MS
case study.

I expect things have moved on significantly from 9 years ago but if
you're examining funding, its probably going to start back there.

Lisa.