Linux fan says GN should dump Microsoft software

Your editorial of Feb. 17, 2006 contained the statement, “Yet another question is policy. Despite the unaccountably large number of employees who bear the job title “policy analyst,” the GN is strangely devoid of actual policies. Without coherent policies, and a system for bringing old policies up to date, new money can be frittered away and wasted.”

I have been a teacher and computer geek for many years and I have found one policy deficiency that is widespread among businesses and governments is that there is no plan to quit using software from Microsoft that is costly, requires too-frequent upgrades of hardware, and renders PCs and networks insecure.

For six years, I have been able to operate my own PCs and PCs in my classrooms using only free open-source software. I usually use the GNU/Linux operating system. This system permits me to keep machines running the latest software on a few new servers, accessed from cheap new machines called “thin clients,” or available older machines.

Last year, I had a new machine fail and was able to obtain perfectly good results using a 10-year-old PC from storage. Replacing most PCs every 10 years instead of every five, using the latest software on new servers, not paying the Microsoft tax, and having much more security from viruses and system crashes is such a blessing. I wrote an article advocating this technology for schools at www.skyweb.ca/~alicia/LTSP.pdf but it would be similarly useful for government offices.

Typical cost savings for hardware are 50 per cent because of the longer life cycle, 100 per cent for software because the GPL is a free licence, and more than 75 per cent for system maintenance, or more.

An added benefit for Nunavut, where electricity is expensive, is that the new thin clients using low-powered processors save as much electrical cost as their capital cost in a couple of years, because they run on 20 watts instead of 200 for a typical PC.

Another area where Nunavut could save a bundle of money is by switching to heat-pump technology for heating instead of using oil. A heat pump is a reverse refrigerator. It wrings heat out of the environment. The population mostly lives near the sea, which is many degrees warmer than the surrounding air in winter. Water at just above freezing can be used as a thermal blanket to reduce heating costs as well.

Of course, there are capital costs associated with any such changes but without a policy to make the changes, Nunavut will be locked into the costly status quo forever. A policy to change gradually would be recovered in a few years and the savings could be put into real needs. We do not need to heat up the outdoors nor improve Bill Gates’ pension.

Robert Pogson
Winnipeg