Re: Kicking around an idea

Howdy Mike-I haven't made a meeting in quite awhile so I may be an unknown-I
work for State Forestry and I have been working with Ubuntu/Codeweavers to
run one of our programs that manages our Red Cards. Red Cards are needed to
fight fire. Anyway the Program is IQS (Incident Qualfication System.) It is
used to store data about training, training needs, fire experience, personal
info.amongst other things. Version 4 was able to use Mysql but version 5
came out which only recognizes Access-The state obtained a blanket license
if there is such a thing and the plan is to have all of training upgraded to
that version by this spring. Me personally I think that is a mistake-all of
our most critical systems are hooked up with Microsoft and its products
(mainframe, office apps, operating systems, etc.) I really disagree with our
most critical apps and files being used under such a proprietory system
irregardless of ease of use (Linux is even easier to use especially Ubuntu)
the biggest reason above all is cost. As a fire suppression forest tech our
funding is quite strapped but we are tasked with assignments which include
teaching fire courses in the spring both low/high level courses in the whole
southern half of the state (Windows, Microsoft Office, Access, IQS) to
submitting our fire reports which are legal documents online (Windows,
Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Fire Reporting System.) The cost has
been a factor in limiting our access to vital tools like laptops (for
training) to the point we're having to salvage second hand surplus
equipment. One may argue that cost cutting in state government is a good
thing a view I share to a degree and we should utilize such resources
willing...but one could also carry such a thought process further and break
away from expensive proprietory software and their upgrades (Vista) and
utilize open software and standards which don't belong to any corporation.
One could even argue instead of upgrading to Vista take the money from that
and put it towards training and implementation of open source solutions.
Just a thought.
 Anyway I am able to run IQS 5.0 natively in Ubuntu 6.06 and I have to score
the .exe file for version 4.0 to see how it reacts with Mysql on a Linux
box. I plan on utilizing such a workstation to maintain our training
infrastructure out in my duty station (Mcgrath) this spring as a backup
initially but with more ambitious plans as our primary system in the near
future. Hope this helps and take care. Bob

On 1/11/07, barsalou <barjunk@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> As some of you know, I used to work for the State at AIDEA. This gave
> me an inside view of how the State of Alaska runs some of its IT.
>
> I've been throwing around the idea of sending an e-mail to the Governor
> that would talk about Open Source and how the State may be able to
> leverage existing infrastructure. Approximately 10 years ago, they
> embarked on a campaign to unify all the desktops to one operating
> system. This is a laudable goal.
>
> Unfortunately, the choices were slim. Yes, I know, Linux was available
> then, but don't think it had the polish of the Linux desktop of today.
>
> With Gartner and other organizations suggesting a wait and see approach
> for Vista
> (
> http://news.com.com/Gartner+Ignore+Vista+until+2008/2100-1016_3-5947521.html
> )
> and with the "radical" change in the Office 2007 interface (according
> to Walt Mossberg of WSJ), this is the right time to introduce Linux on
> the desktop.
>
> Anyone have any feelings/discussion about me representing AKLUG when
> writing such a letter?
>
> Look forward to the feedback.
>
> Mike B.
>
>
>
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Received on Fri Jan 12 14:08:42 2007