By Andy McCue, 5 December 2003 17:15
NEWS The NHS is to begin trials of a desktop Linux software suite in a move it says could free up money for the frontline health service and save taxpayer millions of pounds.
The health service will evaluate Sun Microsystems' Java Desktop System package, which includes the SUSE Linux operating system, a browser, StarOffice and Ximian email.
NHS director general of IT Richard Granger, said in a statement: "Our evaluation of the Java Desktop System holds the promise of allowing a greater share of NHS funding to flow directly towards improved levels of Patient Service. If this solution were to prove effective we could save the NHS and the Taxpayer many millions of pounds whilst at the same time using rich and innovative software technology."
The NHS has around one million employees and with talks with Microsoft still ongoing about a new software licence contract for the health service, Granger's words are likely to chill Microsoft executives to the bone.
Granger made no secret of his anger at the cost of software licensing when speaking at a recent event, making barbed comments about Microsoft's reluctance to offer a bigger discount on 800,000 licences.
"The cost of software is going to become several orders of magnitude lower than it is now. I don't value the IP in the same way they do," Granger said at the time.
Whether the public announcement of the open source trials is merely a ruse to improve Granger's bargaining position with Microsoft or a genuine evaluation of desktop Linux remains to be seen.
Charles Andrews, director of public sector sales at Sun, told silicon.com that the NHS could put more money into front-line patient care with the cost savings from ditching Microsoft's software, with Sun offering JDS for $50 per employee per year.
"You pay one price for one of them and a lot less for the other," he said.
Comments
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1. Rodd Clarkson
It's interesting to compare Sun's offer of a desktop environment, complete of office software, for $50 with Microsoft's recent announcement that they will make a cut down version of Windows in an attempt to make it cheaper for the Asian market.
In one case, Sun is up-ing the ante, saying you don't need to buy the OS, and then the office software, the server software - all the basic needs are included.
In the other case, Microsoft is saying that the only way they can lower the cost of their software is to remove features.
It's not a very clever way to say you can compete, and closer analysis would suggest that what Microsoft is really saying is the only way they can compete is to tempt you with cheap software and then get you to buy the software you need after you're hooked.
At the end of the day Microsoft isn't actually offering a better deal, just a cheaper option to start with. If you need Office, or a Web server, you'll still have to pay for them later.
Kudos to the NHS for looking for ways to put more money into services and less into software.
2. Mike
What is "NHS"?