I still believe in this motto “make it work, they will all want to use it”. I suggest after we agreed which community distro we are going with let’s say Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, then the following happens to ensure we are faster innovating a custom distro for public sector:
1. We need to create a google shared spreadsheet where we will all populate with current commercial software we know our departments are utilising, this will help us start thinking and considering replacing them later on with OSS alternatives, or be prepared to keep their underlying proprietary OSs (partial migration to OSS). We may need the spread sheet to have column for “OSS Alternative”
2. Everyone of us download that common agreed Ubuntu version and install it on a VM or straight on a physical machine.
3. Install agreed office suite and start testing >> share the results.
4. Start experimenting with installation of BAS, LOGIS, etc (common government systems). By the way I guess we may ask the developers to recompile these systems on Linux so we can have a Linux executable to
install.
5. Start installing the OSS alternatives of other existing proprietary applications as loaded on the spreadsheet >> share the test results
6. Have presentations in our meetings on progress made.
7. Agree on at least a BETA that we can start presenting at various forums.
8. Present to the right people at SITA and Treasury with indication of the cost savings we will make for government.
9. Present to committees like the 4IR committee, GovTech and various other forums where we can be able to make noise and be heard.
