Comments on: Open source policy: back where we started http://puffbox.com/2010/07/30/programme-for-government-open-source/ Adventures in government, politics and open source. Mostly WordPress-related. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:55:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Matt http://puffbox.com/2010/07/30/programme-for-government-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-3066 Matt Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:19:01 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=2190#comment-3066 Open source is not necessarily good, or bad. So value for money would be a reasonable measure. How that's calclulated is questionable though. In a lot of cases, on bigger systems, you need to be looking 2 or 3 years down the track, at least 'will my cool open source tech. still be around then ? will anybody know how it works at that point ?'. It's not just a case of saying 'open source good, proprietary bad' since the cost of development on open source can often be higher even if the product is 'free'. Like John, I'm not necessarily talking about Web-CMSs here. Open source is not necessarily good, or bad. So value for money would be a reasonable measure. How that's calclulated is questionable though.
In a lot of cases, on bigger systems, you need to be looking 2 or 3 years down the track, at least 'will my cool open source tech. still be around then ? will anybody know how it works at that point ?'.

It's not just a case of saying 'open source good, proprietary bad' since the cost of development on open source can often be higher even if the product is 'free'. Like John, I'm not necessarily talking about Web-CMSs here.

]]> By: Jon Worth http://puffbox.com/2010/07/30/programme-for-government-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-3024 Jon Worth Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:22:34 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=2190#comment-3024 There's also the government's lousy statement in response to the IE6 petition <a href="http://www.hmg.gov.uk/epetition-responses/petition-view.aspx?epref=ie6upgrade" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Change is going to be slow. There's also the government's lousy statement in response to the IE6 petition here. Change is going to be slow.

]]> By: John Adams http://puffbox.com/2010/07/30/programme-for-government-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-2987 John Adams Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:30:48 +0000 http://puffbox.com/?p=2190#comment-2987 It's not just about websites Simon. Sometimes interop with proprietary is much more cost effective than OSS. If authentication environment is AD then there are significant interop challenges in single sign-on using OSS. Not insurmountable but may push VfM towards proprietary. Having said that the landscape is changing all the time. Would be interested in others' experiences. It's not just about websites Simon. Sometimes interop with proprietary is much more cost effective than OSS. If authentication environment is AD then there are significant interop challenges in single sign-on using OSS. Not insurmountable but may push VfM towards proprietary.

Having said that the landscape is changing all the time. Would be interested in others' experiences.

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