A Press Release I received from Ben Konop's campaign for Lucas County Commissioner:
Democratic Commissioner candidate Ben Konop will be holding a 10:30 AM news conference today, June 29, at 413 N. Michigan to discuss and demonstrate his proposal to switch the county's computer system from Microsoft to open source software. At the press conference, Konop will personally demonstrate the open source software that he hopes to have the county utilize when he is Commissioner. The Konop campaign is already utilizing open source software in its daily operations.
Currently, the County purchases and uses software products like Microsoft Office, Corel, and LotusWorks. In addition to the costs of the software, the county pays licensing fees and upgrading fees of hundreds of dollars per computer. In comparison, open source software is available for free and performs very similar functions. In addition, open source software is less susceptible to viruses, eliminates inaccessibility of public documents, and allows for greater customization.
And best of all, it's free! Based on estimates by the State of Massachusetts, which recently developed an open source software plan, switching to open source could amount to savings of $300 or more per user within the county. Thus, Lucas County taxpayers stand to save millions over the next several years with a new round of licensing and new products entering the market.
"I'm not a computer expert, but I know a good deal for taxpayers when I see one," stated Konop. "As Commissioner, I look forward to moving Lucas County into the 21st Century and saving taxpayers money in the process," added Konop.
As a personal addition to Ben's Press Release, if you are not that computer/tech saavy and would like to learn more about Open Source, I suggest this wiki as a start.
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6 comments:
Open source software is fine, but the user needs to know what he or she is doing? Training will be an added expense. Did Ben consider this too. Typical Ben Konop...he has a plan to "save tax dollars," but it will more likely cost more than the projected cost savings.
Training is needed when anything new comes out most times anyway so I'm not sure this would increase training costs to the point there would be no large savings. Considering other states are in the process of doing this or working on switching over as well as numerous other Countries? I'd say it appears there is a valid belief that it is cost effective. It's also created situations where vendors negotiate a reduced license fee which could also very well happen.
I'm not going to pretend I'm a huge open source user, I'm not. Heck I still prefer IE to Firefox but it is worth taking a closer look at to see if it is a possible plan for the County. I have friends and family that are users of Open Source and they rave about it. I'm too lazy to learn something new when I know what I have so well.
I haven't discussed this in great detail with Ben, all I am doing is passing along the Press Release that I thought some of you might find of interest, which I have done before and will continue to do for candidates or their campaign staff that send them to me.
:-)
Ben, thanks for clarifying the training issue. If it's that easy maybe I should stop being so lazy.
:-)
As for posting the press release? No problem - I'm glad to do it so that people can have information on your ideas.
Ben:
Do you use open source software? If so, what do you use?
Maybe this will bring those "high tech jobs" in. Unfortunately I'm not sure if they can hire someone who lives outside the county to provide tech support for the shiny new Open Source software, if Konop gets hired and makes it happen.
Though I will say that the county will save a lot in the software licensing department, possibly also in the hardware department (don't need the latest and greatest to run this stuff, unlike how you need a brand new top-end computer to run the latest Windows which you need to run the latest Office which you need because someone else runs the latest Office and you can't open their files with the old Office, or buy old copies when you need to expand).
Re-training will be a pain, loss of productivity will be a pain for a while, but the other side is better security and no freakin' worrying about someone bringing in viruses and worms -- they won't work under Linux and OpenOffice.
Well, somebody's thinking!
However, there are certain applications that haven't been ported to Linux, that a small number of computers will be required to run under Winderz ;-)
Most though, can run free under Linux and the Open Office suite, which can be run on a regular PC.
The Open Office Suite can be downloaded here
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