[plug] Linux advocacy - Armadale City Council
Bret Busby
bret at busby.net
Wed Sep 11 13:10:16 WST 2002
Hello, everyone.
After Michael Hunt's presentation last night, in which he advocated
greater advocay of open source, I discussed an Armadale City Council
(ACC) response with a few people, and it was suggested that I should
post a query to the list, as it appears that the PLUG does not have any
particular formal resources for assisting in advocacy.
I had seen the budget for the ACC for this financial year (I have
previously mentioned some aspects on the list), and, I had put some
questions to the council. Below are the questions and the official
responses.
Note: ACC website is at http://www.armadale.wa.gov.au
>
> 12. Regarding the 2002/2003 Annual Budget document for the council, as, on
> 7 August 2002, most of the links on the Armadale City Council website were
> not working, and the website did not include displaying an email contact
> address for the city council, and, as the 2001/2002 amount allocated to
> the line item "Website - City of Armadale" as stated on Schedule M4 -
> Information System Services, of $16,340, appears unreasonably high, both
> for a website for the council, and, especially for the website as it was
> on 7 August 2002, I ask the mayor to justify the expenditure of that
> amount of money, on a website that should have cost a fraction of that
> amount, even if the website had been fully functional.
>
Answer:
"The $16,340 cost included both website development costs and subsequent
data and graphic amendments.
(Mr Busby was critical of the website - see attached "positive"
feedback)"
- no attachment included
- note; the website appears to have been repaired, and, an email address
for contacting the council, included, since I emailed the webmaster on 7
August. However, whether the cost of the website, at $16,340, is
reasonable, or is grossly overcharged, is an issue.
> 13. Regarding the 2002/2003 Annual Budget document, in the Schedule M4 -
> Information System Services, as the line item of "Internet Home Page" has
> an allocated amount of $5,000, is this a replacement for the Website
> expenditure as mentioned in my previous question, and, if so, how is that
> amount derived, given that this will result in a total cost of over
> $21,000 for the council website?
>
Answer:
"The $5,000 budgeted "Internet Home Page" expense for 2002-03 covers
amendments to the websiet that may be required and cannot be performed
in-house, eg. graphic artwork."
> 14. Regarding the 2002/2003 Annual Budget document, in the Schedule M4 -
> Information Services, as there is an inclusion of a new item -
> "Virus/Security", of $7,000, has the council investigated conversion to
> open source software, such as using the Linux operating system, for which
> no viruses have been successfully written, and which is regarded as far
> more secure and stable than most other operating systems, and which is
> free of charge to install and copy, with no limitations on the number of
> installations per copy of the operating system that is owned, and, if the
> council has not investigated the feasibility of converting to using open
> source software and using the Linux operating system, why not?
>
Answer:
"The use of open source software such as the Linux operating system has
been assessed. That assessment indicates that a change from Windows to
an open source operating system would not be beneficial for reasons
that,
* the Linux operating system is also susceptible to viruses (the ($7,000
budgeted for 2002-03 for Virus/Security software covers both Windows and
Linux system viruses),
* there is limited support for open source software systems,
* the software applications which use open source software are by
comparison to applications using Windows limited, and
*the significant cost associated in re-training staff if a change were
made to an open source software system."
> 15. For what detailed specific purpose is the line item "IT Training" in
> the Schedule M4 - Information System Services, in the 2002/2003 Annual
> budget document?
>
Answer:
"The $7,000 budgeted "IT Training expense for 2002-03 provides for the
ongoing training and development of Council's (4) IT personnel together
with specific IT training needs as identified for Council's other 168 IT
users."
> .......................................
Apart from these issues, the council, at the ordinary council meeting on
2 September 2002, accepted a couple of tenders for the supply of
hardware.
Amongst other things, the "Business PCs" and the Laptops, were specified
as having, as the operating system, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional.
(From memory, Win2K is no longer supported by Microsoft. Is that
correct?) The value of the approved tender for the supply of PC's anmd
printers, is $147,299. (Minimum on site warranty of three years,
required for the PC's, including the laptops)
The other tender, was for the "supply of servers, storage area network
and backup tape library". That tender included, for "1U rack optimised
Mounted Servers", quantity 5, computers with the operating system
Windows 2000 Professional. Now, Anne picked up on this; why, for
servers, the council would be using the Professional edition, rather
than the Server edition, is a bit puzzling. (Minimum five year on site
warranty for these, required) The value of the approved tender, is
$153,347.
If anyone wants to see more detail of the specifications and the tenders
submitted, they are available for the public to read, at the council
offices and the council libraries; the document is the Agenda for the
Ordinary Council Meeting of 2 Sepember 2002; the tenders are in the part
that is the Minutes of the Community Services Committee (NOT the
Technical Services Committee (?) ) dated 27 August 2002, pages 19-29.
Now, in the context of all of this, comes the following.
I ask for constructive advice, as how to take this further (trying to
get the council to switch to Linux, or, to PROPERLY investigate the
feasibility of switching to Linux.
The council has some pretty grotty software that is not Windows-based
(part of the "corporate software", I believe), such as the database that
includes the local organisations that are registered with the council,
the database not including such simple queries, as returning a list of
all of the different organisations of a particular type (eg, "progress
associations", or, residents and ratepayers asociations), and their
current contact details. The database can only retrieve all of the
record for each organisation, including information that is not for
public knowledge, which makes accessing information in that database,
unwieldy.
Apart from that, I am intending to raise the following questions;
1. As the response to a previous question states that Linux is
susceptible to viruses, and that the $7,000 budgeted for "Virus/security
software", "covers both Windows and Linux system viruses, could the
council qualify this, in the context of no computer virus having been so
far, successfully written for the Linux operating system?
2. As the previous question includes "security software", is the
council's IT department aware of the CERT and the CERT advisories, and,
has the council assessed the relative risks of using Windows and Linux,
in terms of the proportion and the stated degrees of risk, of CERT
advisories relating to Windows-based security problems, to the the CERT
advisories relating to Linux-based security problems, given that this
all involves the risk to ratepayers' interests in Armadale?
3. As the response to my previous question regarding Linux, stated that
"there is limited support for open source operating systems", is the
council aware of both the Perth Linux User Group, and the support
professionals involved in that organisation, and, the Society of Linux
Professionals of Western Australia, and, the support professioals
involved in that organisation, or, has the council investigated such
resources in Perth, and, if so, how long ago?
4. In the context of the last question, and, in the context of the
council having at the last council meeting, approved expenditure on new
computer systems, which use the Windows 2000 operating system, what
guarantees has the council, of Microsoft, as the manufacturer of Windows
2000, providing continuing support of Windows 2000?
5. In the context of the tender approved by the council at the last
council meeting, for the supply of servers using the Windows 2000
Professional operating system, why did the council approve expenditure
on new servers running a desktop operating system, instead of on new
servers running a server operating system?
6. Regarding the answer to my question relating to Linux, and the
statement that "the software applications which use open source software
are by comparison to applications using Windows limited", what
applications does the council use, which applications run on Windows,
that do not have an equivalent that runs on Linux, given that a number
of free office suites are available for Linux, an equivalent of
Microsoft Outlook, exists for Linux, and, at least as many email
applications exist for Linux, as for Windows, and, other, commercial
applications, such as CAD, accounting systems, and database development
environments, such as Oracle, Informix, and DB2, are available for
Linux, apart from the more powerful, and, more standards-compliant, open
source database development application, PostgreSQL?
7. What is the costing of the licences of the software used by the
council, and, what Microsoft licensing option did the council choose,
when Microsoft changed the licensing contracts, this year?
8. Given that the response to my question reagrding Linux, included the
statement that there would be "the significant cost associated in
re-training staff if a change were made to an open source software
system", and, given the open source software that is now available, for
both Linux and Windows operating sytems, and the ease of use, and, of
installation of particular versions of Linux, requiring minimal
training, how long ago, was this assessment made?
9. In the context of all of the preceding material and questions, does
the mayor the deputy mayor, or any other councillors, including those
on the IT committee, and the CEO, and, the IT department manager, for
the sake of better understanding what all of this is about, intend
attending the Perth Linux User's Group Linux Installfest, scheduled to
be held on Sunday 29 September 2002, so as to properly investigate the
feasibility of using Linux and open source software, by the council?
10. As the response to my question about the budget line item "IT
Training", states that it includes provision for "the ongoing traing and
development of Council's (4) IT personnel", are any of these personnel,
certified system or network engineers?
If anyone thinks that I have missed anything in this, or, that I have
got anything (substatially) wrong, could they please advise?
Also, last night, I asked what resources were available in PLUG, for
advocating the use of Linux, and, asked about the possibility of an
advocay Special Interest Group, being set up within PLUG. Sich an SIG,
could help support people (such as me, in this instance), who are trying
to promote the use of Linux. If someone took this on, it could help the
cause.
Thanks in anticipation.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Douglas Adams, 1988
....................................................
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