[Sheflug] Re: Microsoft Rip off Heatlh Service (was: Partitioning)

[Richard Ibbotson <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Keith

> Is there no suitable Linux software for hospital or school use?

For schools there have been many articles written in the Linux 
related press about Linux in schools.  One or two mostly unknown 
articles have also appeared in the general press.  Many schools in 
the south of England and one or two in Wales are using Linux and they 
say that they are more than satisfied with it.  It's only when it 
comes to certain GCSE exam packages that MS Windows is actually 
needed.

My own attempts at pushing Linux in schools in the local area have 
had mixed responses.  Sometimes the headmaster only dimly grasps the 
advantages of not spending money on MS licences.  Other times the ICT 
technicians themselves in the schools aren't too good and they can 
only just manage to click on an MS icon on the screen.  Anything else 
is to much for them.

On the odd ocassion the educational people have grasped what I have 
said and done and they have installed Linux.  In some cases they've 
taken it out again because they had to read a book.

In the case of the NHS things are much more complex.  Things like 
political correctness can come into play.  Perhaps you have to be a 
friend of the right person to ask a question ?  And ... the Church of 
England and the Catholic Church who all play a significant part in 
the NHS would rather promote MS products rather than support free or 
low cost software.

This doesn't help when an NHS ICT technician wishes to question the 
wisdom of the people who are in charge of him or her.  Then there's 
"patient care" isn't there ?  What does that mean ?  I won't bother 
to rant on about it here.

> The situation makes me very suspicious of governments and local
> authorities.

I'm sure that the present Government are as highly hated or disliked 
as the previous one was.  Although, I think myself that the 
Conservative Government of yesteryear were in fact so much out of the 
way of legal correctness that I sometimes find that there are people 
out there who prefer the Labour party.  It goes along the lines of 
... best of the worst ... or something like that.

One of my own opinions is that Railtrack should have been wrestled 
out of the hands of private industry many years ago.  I know that I'm 
not alone in thinking that way.  But ... the idea of nationalising 
anything that may be within the bounds of our national borders may 
not be something that we need to be involved in.

Thank you


-- 
Richard
___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk . 
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to 
shef-lug-request@list.sheflug.org.uk with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.