Fwd: [ATPS] Re: Fwd: [Fsf-friends] BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"

[Sandip Bhattacharya]

cvr3 at river-valley.org wrote:
> I am single handedly managing nearly sixty GNU/Linux systems in and
> around Trivandrum in various Government offices. The result is that I am
> virtually swamped by telephone calls for support. Lot of people are
> around me and when I ask them to spare their little bit of time for the
> cause of Free Software they are full of GPLed logics to find out
> excuses. Please tell me if any free time is available with you so that
> you too can share with me the work (or pleasure) I am doing right now.
> The kind of support calls are to copy files to USB memory sticks, to
> play some videos, to install drivers for new printers in old Linux boxes
> which won't support the new ones because of low memory limitations etc.
> Some time the works takes lots of time and you may need to do all kinds
> of works starting source code compilation, searching the web for sources
> for new drivers or sometimes you may have to play with the drivers
> sources too. Come forward and share the pain and pleasure of
> development, installation and maintenance of Linux systems and spirit.

CVR, I don't mean any disrespect, but why did you take up this support
work? Unless you do this for free, this is the kind of work you have to
do when you take up the task for supporting workstations in offices(
have you used the horrible software amc support of windows in such
offices? the only work they do is uninstalling/installing stuff when
they don't work rather than fixing the problem)

Have you supported offices with Windows too? Believe me, the support
calls are generally similar, and you mostly need to explain only once to
people, and they take it from there.

I have also been associated with a prominent finance company in Delhi
which has one fine day moved to Linux and Open Office, to cut down on
legit software expenses.

Once people get used to Openoffice, Firefox etc. and generally don't try
to do too many things on their office computer (like installing limewire
 or kazaa), they normally don't have any problem. In the few months that
I had been associated with them, there were very few problems that were
referred to me, and that the local sysadmin (a windows trained one even)
could not handle.

Once the office decided to move to Linux, we standardized all hardware.
We didn't order printers which couldn't work on Linux, didn't buy
network cards which didn't have any open drivers, etc. There were always
those people (including big bosses) who wanted some new fangled
hardware/peripheral in the office. They were politely told that if they
want it, they can install it themselves. You can guess the end result.

Probably because this wasn't a government company and therefore, people
were more disciplined. But in your case, if they aren't, then it is a
case of poor management (not yours, the government) which couldn't take
a more practical or disciplined approach to migration. And probably you
haven't been given more authority in making technical decisions in the
whole org. I might be mistaken here, and if I am, please accept my
apologies.

But that doesn't mean that all Linux migrations are such a problem.

> 
> There are lots less active people out there and please assign them the
> work of hunting and sending people to the Hall of Shame.

Please do not misunderstand this call for blacklisting with quality of
linux support. Linux advocacy has to happen from multiple fronts - on
one hand, we need to ask people to use the software(You do this). On the
other hand, "projects" like the hall of shame, aim to make the life
better for people who start using Linux.

The hall of shame "project" was started for precisely the problems that
you are facing. Having problems installing that new peripheral sold by
HCL? Or Wipro? (these are just examples) Having problems using Linux to
 use your bank's website?

The solution to these is not only that Linux programmers should code
tools which work with these hardware. The hardware
manufacturers/webmasters also need to be convinced/pressurised/cajoled
to make their products compatible with Linux(and standards). This is an
equally important task that should not be taken lightly.


> 
> Please ponder over these
> 
> Do we have an Office Automation software customised for our office culture?
> Do we have an Accounting Software for use in our Government offices?
> Do we have an inventory package?
> Do we have a project management for use in Government?
> Do we have a home grown software to manage to Educational Institutions?

To tell you the truth, most of these work you mention are best done
customized for the organization. Yes, common pluggable tools might be a
good idea to have, but these are more like services than products.
Customizing opensource tools for such work is the bread and butter of
all vendors which specialize in Linux solutions. That doesn't mean that
we should not have open source tools for the same, just that at the end
of the day we would always need these vendors who have to customize the
product for the customer.

Because of the popularity of certain proprietary software, many orgs
have changed their processes around these products, but the best fit are
always customized packages.

Come to think of it,even in the proprietary world, there aren't too many
affordable software for many of these(by cost I mean the cost of
acquiring these legal software for all the required workstations in the
office).


- Sandip