« Shutting Down Dell | Main | Green Pixel Plague on Apple Displays »
Open Source: Locked Into Uncertainty
I was browsing the ZDNet blogs this morning and saw this ad:
This caught my eye and I clicked through. The ad takes you to case studies from Microsoft, including one showcasing the State of Illinois’ email consolidation project. Utah did something similar back in 2002. Believe me, it’s not an easy job.
As you’d expect since it was a Microsoft case study, Illinois chose to consolidate an Exchange/Active Directory solution—they had different agencies using Exchange, GroupWise, and Notes. We were luckier—almost everyone was usin GroupWise and Novell directory—although there were lots of servers with out of date versions that had to be updated before we could install a meta-directory.
I wouldn’t fault any CIO for choosing Exchange. It’s the dominant email platform at this point and clearly the safe choice. What I do find a little interesting is that Illinois officials would go out of their way to help Microsoft create an anti-open source propaganda video. The two stars are Paul Campbell, Director of CMS (Central Management Services) and Tony Daniels, the agency’s Deputy Director. At one point, Daniels says:
“People say that open source doesn’t lock you into any one company, but when you think about it, it locks you into uncertainty.”
Daniels also says something about not having time for “science projects.” Did Microsoft write the script? Sadly, probably not. That’s probably what he really believes. When I became CIO for Utah, I found a culture that was ignorant and, in some cases, scared of open source. That’s probably not just true of state government, but any old-line business.
Posted by windley on August 1, 2007 10:52 AM
Comment from Scott Barlow at August 1, 2007 2:13 PM
Everyone has their price. The info could have come from a general quote and re-inserted to make it look like it was a stand against open-source, but I don't think any other CIO would say something different on general terms regarding software if they felt it was something they could trust and get an excellent discount for being a part of a case study. One of the major stipulations MS likes to work with customers is getting an agreement for a case study when it's in MS's benefit.
Comment from Michael Neale at August 1, 2007 11:05 PM
I think this view is more common then those of us on "the inside" think. Although in the above case it probably was with a bit of encouragement from Microsoft.
The upside of this is that for the open source industry, people are still open to seeing the advantages (so there is still lots of room for improvements).
A more negative side is to re-inforce the anti-opensource stance of Microsoft (at least in terms of marketing) - dispite the Microsoft apologists.
Comment from Randy Gordon at August 2, 2007 3:26 PM
Well, thats the state of illinois. However, I should mention that the city of Chicago, which comprises the vast majority of the citizens of the state, has had all 23 city departments convert to Linux.
The State is going through this huge budget crunch, since they "forgot" to fund pensions for the past few years, or pay health providers, and the accounting boards called them on it. As a consequence, there has to be a serious cutback in services.
The next election is not going to be a very pretty one for the governor. I suspect any company capable of making a campaign contribution is going to be very welcome in the state.
Comment from Memo Bandit at August 3, 2007 12:56 AM
I can tell you all about the State of Illinois and its' Windows machines. In my agency, they are running XP on PentiumIII 300Mhz machines with anywhere from 64 to 128 Megs of RAM. Everything is S L O W. I can assure you that somebody got a kickback from choosing XP for their equipment. There are many times that I have tried to log-on to a machine, and it's taken over 10 minutes just to get to a usable desktop. So yes, I do believe that there are some serious Microsoft shills running Information Services in Illinois.
Comment from kenholmes at October 1, 2007 11:38 PM
I can only wonder why Microsoft hasn't done a case study with the good folks at Shelly the Republican.
Perhaps it is possible to love Microsoft and hate Linux too much for even Steve Balmer to accept.
Well, that and the apparent state of psychosis manifested on that site.
Leave a comment
I encourage you to leave a comment below. Your email address will not be displayed on Technometria, but allows me to communicate with you directly. Your email address won't be displayed, but will be used to compute a MicroID for your comment.