[Linux-aus] Greens battle Microsoft

[Arjen Lentz]

Hi Jeff, Brent, all,

On Fri, 2003-08-01 at 17:55, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> <quote who="Brent Wallis (IS)">
> 
> > Hmm, would not greater advantage be gained by a high profile Open Source
> > driven office? I wonder if the Democrats or Greens would consider a
> > complete swap of their systems. Now that really would be something...
> > 
> > Has anyone ever made an approach along these lines?  For the sake of
> > community contribution, this sort of project would be a worthwhile "donate
> > free consultancy time" excercise wouldn't it?
> 
> I think so too - they're definitely willing to walk the walk, and have
> demonstrated this a number of times. It would be good PR, and good community
> work. Hmm... and I have a whole relaxing weekend away to muse upon this. ;-)

Probably pointing out the obvious, but doesn't hurt:

We must be very careful with exercises such as these. Past attempts to
migrate organisations "to prove the point" have failed miserably, and
can be used nicely in PR as proof that "FOSS doesn't work".

So, without making promises "oh we'll migrate you guys", a very thorough
assessment needs to be done of what they have now and what their
requirements are. No loose ends.
And perhaps (not unlikely) the conclusion will be that certain parts can
be migrated, but not all (yet). If something "might work", put it down
as a "not yet". These things are too tricky to gamble with.

I think that a partial migration would already be a great thing. Smaller
steps also make people less apprehensive about change. And chances are,
they'll be ready for another step at some point.


Regards,
Arjen.
--
Arjen Lentz, Technical Writer, Trainer
Brisbane, QLD Australia
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