OSS in Beaumont

Gandalf23

I was just wondering if anyone heard anything about the OSS situation in Beaumont?

Apparently the Beaumont CEO said in an Irish Times interview last friday he couldnt wait to get rid of all the OSS stuff in Beaumont and get all the MS software back.

Also this from enn.ie http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9612276

A black day indeed if true...

egan007

I was talking to a friend who works there
- he said there have been complaints from the start regarding star/open office - They were simple things like the windows asking if you want to open the file with c:/program files/openoffice/somime instead of just opening with with MS Word
Some usere did not know if this was the proper application

People are so used of having their hand held that when the nobrainer is put in front of them they panic....

Indeed it's a sad day to see OS loose out to MS
But i suppose OS should develop better to compete better

Red Alert

It's typical of the half-hearted attitude that's being adopted in companies. The health service cannot and should not afford to be paying huge Microsoft licencing fees. Most hospitals run custom-written management software anyway so there's no need to be tied to one specific platform.

We have this problem in UCD too - computing services have replaced a rock solidly stable linux e-learning system (which was secure and did single sign on with the rest of the network) with a terrible system called Blackboard which runs on Windows and needs a separate ID. It is buggy, slow and the pages have over 40K worth of graphics. Who brought computing services to lunch?

Robbo

Red Alert wrote:

We have this problem in UCD too - computing services have replaced a rock solidly stable linux e-learning system (which was secure and did single sign on with the rest of the network) with a terrible system called Blackboard which runs on Windows and needs a separate ID. It is buggy, slow and the pages have over 40K worth of graphics. Who brought computing services to lunch?

Blackboard was introduced in NUI,G when I was in final year. What a horrible piece of software. From what I gather, it costs a huge amount as well and for all it was used for, something like PHPbb would have sufficed.

dochasach

egan007 wrote:

I was talking to a friend who works there
- he said there have been complaints from the start regarding star/open office - They were simple things like the windows asking if you want to open the file with c:/program files/openoffice/somime instead of just opening with with MS Word
Some usere did not know if this was the proper application

Can anyone verify whether the decision is really being based on reports of relatively minor bugs? Shouldn't the Hospital put out an RFP for a solution to these bugs and compatibility issues rather than lock themselves into expensive proprietary software? There are many talented students at UCD or Trinity who, for a couple of million euro, would be happy to add a line to the windows registry or linux mime database so that these scary messages don't frighten users! I would also like to point out that even in the unlikely event that all such bugs disappear after migrating back to Microsoft, you will be faced with a different set of bugs and security concerns which could be even more frightening.

I'm disappointed that taxpayer money is so easily wasted. However rather than blame the Beaumont CEO for his compatibility concerns, I'd like to see the rest of Ireland's health care system migrate to a solution based on open standards (OASIS, DICOM...) When an IT solution is not tied to a single vendor's proprietary API's, the customer is free to accept competitive bids from multiple vendors. Siemens, Fujitsu and G.E. CT scanners are all compatible with the DICOM protocol. So migration to a more cost effective scanner needn't force an expensive migration of all hospital records. Health care does require goods and services from "sole source" vendors. There are very few companies in the world who can make a PET scanner, an artery shunt or an anti-cancer drug. But word processors and desktop operating systems should not fall into this category of specialised equipment.

Competition almost always reduces cost and increases efficiency. The tens of millions of euros saved could be put to far better use in providing beds, staff, medicine and equipment. It seems that our hospitals need this far more than they need a particular font or transition effect in their office software.

I find it interesting that we are considering using public money to migrate back to proprietary software while large private corporations (e.g. G.E. Medical systems) have seen the advantage of open source and are migrating towards it. It is far too easy to spend someone else's money. I hope we can convince the health minister and the Irish DOH to spend health care funds more wisely, on health care.