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| Linux and the City |
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| Written by Pete Theisen |
| Sunday, 05 December 2010 22:05 |
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This is not a new TV show title for the next season. However, one Florida city that I know of, Largo, has adopted the free computer operating system with the free computer software associated with it for use on all of its computers. In the rare case where the old OS is "absolutely necessary" there is a Citrix server in Largo's IT department that provides for that. There might be another city or county in Florida using Linux as well. How much does "free" cost? Well, it is a little more work for IT staff at first - more local IT wages, but there is no licensing cost. How much work? I have been using Linux for ten years. I found that ordinary user stuff was no different than the better known OS, and didn't change from version to version unless the change was truly beneficial. In preparation for proposing this change I have been attending classes at Hillsborough Community College two nights a week all semester. The class is only an hour and a quarter but the commute is 4 hours round trip on my 60 mile per gallon motorbike. I chose HCC because the Linux professor, Wayne Pollock, is the most highly recommended in the area. Linux doesn't change requirements just to make you buy new hardware (ten year old computers running Linux are common) or to obsolete your skills to force you to take more expensive training. If Linux changes there is a functional reason for the change. Thus, the changes are seldom. The "other guys" are charging us a whopping $217,000 per year. We should be able to trim that by a lot, probably more than half. Let's do it! |
| Last Updated on Sunday, 05 December 2010 22:06 |
Political Advertisement paid for and Approved by Pete Theisen for City Commissioner.
