[rant] Re: debate about Free software for the ACT Government

[Anthony Wesley]

Alex Satrapa wrote:
> 
> The following is a bunch of random thoughts that I just *had* to release
> into the wild for the enlightenment of other subscribers ;)  None of my
> rant is supportable by hard facts yet, I'm pretty much just airing my
> opinion and looking for people to shoot holes in it.
> 
> At 09:32  24/04/02 +1000, Anthony Wesley wrote:
> >What _is_ important are issues about tech support costs, flexibility to
> >adapt to changing situations , ease of recovery of data or systems after a
> >disaster etc etc
> >
> >This is where the real cost of ownership comes from. From personal
> >experience, Linux is way ahead of MS in these areas.
> 
> IMHO, the fastest and simplest way of reducing the TCO of a Microsoft
> desktop is simply to stop using Microsoft Outlook (or Outlook Express) - I
> have no idea of how virus-friendly Entourage is yet.  You instantly reduce
> the probability of trojans and virii proliferating through your network -
> resulting in much less time lost to cleaning up after virii, and
> significantly reducing the risk of SirCam style document leakage.


I totally agree :-)

Although I didn't say it in my earlier email, it is absolutely essential to ditch MS outlook and IE when you have to support a
network-connected MS desktop.

Anthony