Dear silicon.com... open source vs MS, budget overruns, the iPhone, patents...

Reader Comments of the Week

What's got silicon.com readers reaching for their keyboards this week? Reader Comments of the Week showcases how our users are responding to the latest tech news and views on the site...

Microsoft vs open source
UK 'a closed shop for open source'

'Microsoft Works' is an oxymoron!!
-- Anonymous, Sussex

Most of the IT admins that I meet in gov. are poorly paid recruits who come from that great pool of MS certified pros.

I think the perception within IT management is that OS / Linux skills aren't readily available from the skills market and that people that do have Linux skills are expensive because its niche.
-- Anonymous, Midlands

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Tony Hallett flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Businesses cool on software as a service It's no fad but no slam dunk either
♦ Podcast: The Weekly Round-Up 14.09.07 The team gather round to consider the quirkier stories
♦ CIOs face tough on-demand choices You probably guessed it
♦ Virtualisation - a CIO's best friend? This subject is the talk of the town. Should it be?

From my experiance with Open Source i can say that Open source software can reduce the ROI for companies and organisations and there are many companies like JBOSS whcih also provides support at very competative rates and also the source can be customised , the only thing lacking is the mindset of people , most of whom cannot understand this complex technologies that are used .Over time this will definetely change .The US is leading the way in this what with many govt orgs in US using open source.
-- Anil Srikantiah, Bangalore

If confidence in open source is growing, why does it rarely appear in public sector IT? Easily explained, the lethargic IT heads will not even bother to stick their heads above the trenches and seek innovation - not while it's safer to remain hidden in well trodden paths of ignorance. Recent high profile failures have worsened this situation and the introduction of blame culture by the vulnerable will ensure that public IT remains a negative source of progress for quite some time.
Radical Meldrew, Suburbs

While government has no credible strategy for migration to open systems they will constantly look foolish as the rest of the world moves on.
Anonymous, England

There goes the budget…
One in three tech projects runs over budget

Project Managers have to develop a sense of cunning misbelief of spreadsheets and timesheets.
-- Charles Smith, London

Many projects overrun & under perform because they would never be approved if everyone was honest when presenting the project to the Board.
-- Roger Huffadine, Worcester

If you require contractors to tender competitively but don't then hold them to the price, you get overrun. It's inevitable. It's human nature.
-- Tim Jackson, Rossendale

Virtual txt
Photos: BT talks big on virtual worlds

An SMS station in a virtual world? Isn't this doing something simple in a complicated way? I can already SMS perfectly well from my PC. Since I can have mutiple windows open at the same time, why do I need to remain in SL to do this? Virtual worlds are amusing and interesting, but people do seem to be assuming that you have to be able to replicate all real world facilities there, even if there is an easier way!
-- Anonymous, South

Patently unjust
The Brampton Factor: Microsoft vs EU

I'm glad you publicy stated what I've thought for a long time - that patent law is there only to protect the large corporations (who can afford the exhorbitant cost of obtaining a patent and later fighting it in court).

Whilst patents afford holders "the protection of the law", the reality is that, even if I (an individual) spend £100s obtaining a patent on plastic widgets, I couldn't even contemplate fighting a smal-sized company if they infringed my patent, due to the legal costs involved. So my patent actually isn't worth the paper it's written on...

So instead, I swallow my idea, and deprive the whole of society access to my idea for plastic widgets... Patents stiffle (not encourage) innovation - no doubt about it.

We need a different approach, methinks...
-- Anonymous, Midlands

Mobile telly bellyaches
Global mobile TV a money-maker by 2012

As a form of mobile entertainment TV is a looser. Music and radio programs make for good mobile entertainment as they don't demand your full attention. TV does. I can just imagine my bosses comments if I came into work and propped my mobile TV device up behind my keyboard! Or the comments of the traffic cops when stopped for driving erratically whilst under the influence of Coronation street or Big brother.
-- Mark Hosey, West Central Scotland

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