[lug] October 10, 2002 - Boulder Linux User Group Meeting

[neelsmith74 at netscape.net]

Hi Tom,

We just spoke with David Lawrence (RH-QA) and Jeremy Hogan (RH-PR) at the Red Hat road tour stop at Jeffco about Linux in state/county/city government.
It seems according to Ottis Lamar (Jeffco Linux Admin) that Jeffco has over 120+ Linux servers/desktops in use.  The Dev Manager is also a big Open Source advocate running their own in house code or open source software.  

I personally started the push for Linux within the city.  However being the Sr. Software Eng. / Jr. Linux Admin-advocate I did not carry much clout when talking to other IT staff, City Manager and City Council.  All other staff at the City were Microsoft; we where basically a Microsoft Shop.  I was the outsider when I came in to the City from IBM and switched the web server, database and email server over to Linux.  I had meeting after meeting going over the pros and cons of Open Source vs. Microsoft-no one would commit (so I did).  I was even a little worried about my further employment there, until the new IT Director came in.
He is very tech savvy being from the private biz sector and was already used to an Open Source environment.  He has been the big push (as well as Microsoft’s further exploits and pricing) that has started the sway of City Mangers and Council (the IT staff really have no choose-since he is the IT director).  We are gathering data as we go along from our experiences as well as those from Jeffco (to help us) and will be putting together a white paper sometime next year.  I could go a lot more in detail about future plans of our City and those of Jeffco as they relate to us over the phone or in personal email.  I am in the process of releasing GPL software back to other surrounding city's in Colorado, as well as, staring a CVS of Open Source software projects among other municipalities.
Feel free to contact me for more info.  I love to promote Linux and the GPL-if one couldn’t tell!

PS-In reading the response from Chris and his friend; if an IT Director/Manager is a Microsoft person - GOOD LUCK, ITS TOUGH!  The main problem/argument I have seen is the lack of Linux/Unix IT staff in a Microsoft shop.  No one knows how to use or support it!  They do not seem to think of hiring a Linux / GPL programmer or replacing a Microsoft/.NET programmer (or have them program under the GPL).  The motivating argument might be to show one GPL programmer could lead a CVS/GPL project that could include 100+ free, no cost to the City, programmers!!!  How's that for cost effectiveness, it blows there mind.

Nate
City of Northglenn
nneelsmith at northglenn.org
303-450-8895
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hi all, The City of Northglenn is working hard to convert to a
>Nate> 99% Open Source structure.
>
>This is cool!
>
>Nate> Our new IT Director & weak economy (low city funds) have really
>Nate> helped the push lately.
>
>I'm curious about the process.  Was this driven by the IT Director?
>Or from someone else in the city IT department?  Or was it driven from
>the outside somehow?
>
>Nate> We still have a long way to go before we will see it on the
>Nate> Desktop, but if any of you have seen Jeffco (Linux Servers to
>Nate> Desktops), there is hope.
>
>I haven't heard about this.  Could you tell me?
>
>I'm interested in any information about governments in the area
>switching to free software.  In particular data about the cost savings
>would be useful, or a white paper describing the process, problems,
>and effects...
>
>Tom
>_______________________________________________
>Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
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