The UK government through the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) yesterday endorsed open source software as a viable alternative to proprietary software. LinuxIT, the largest independent systems integrator and services provider for Linux in the UK, urges caution with its adoption.

Software publishers and resellers have embraced the report and opened the flood gates for the adoption of Linux wholesale within the public sector.

Peter Dawes-Huish, Sales Director of LinuxIT commented, “Of course we welcome the OGC guidelines. However, as the provider of the majority of independent Linux services in the UK, we also urge a note of caution.

LinuxIT has worked with public sector bodies over the last three years under the OGC guidelines. The key to successful deployment of Linux is a careful analysis of the functional requirements. We have already seen large scale implementations of Linux on public sector servers, but wholesale and desktop implementations require a lot of thought and consideration.”

The majority of Linux expertise in the UK is sourced from LinuxIT, either direct or through one of its many partner system integrators.

The number of government bodies all over the world that switch their systems to Linux is growing constantly. Companies of all sizes and in various industries recognise the substantial benefits of open source software, and more and more private users make the move to Linux.

Peter further commented: “We strongly disagree with comments from Microsoft that the open source operating system was less secure and more costly to maintain. This not only flies against the findings of the OGC report, but also against most users’ experiences. Linux provides a strong alternative to operating systems such as Microsoft. The software is extremely stable. It is not as susceptible to viruses and hacker attacks, and on top of that it is extremely cost effective. The OGC and LinuxIT recognise the need for choice in the market, and that is why LinuxIT offers independent advice on solving customer’s business issues through the application of a mixture of open source and proprietary software, providing scalable and secure enterprise systems. The advance of Linux is not going to slow down, even Microsoft recognises that now.” ----ends

About LinuxIT

LinuxIT is the UK’s largest independent provider of IT Infrastructure integrating Linux and Open Source solutions with Microsoft and other vendors’ technologies.

LinuxIT is the UK Powerhouse of Linux expertise with consultants forming the backbone to the services of most of the best known names in IT. 

Our aim is to work in partnership with our customers to identify the best IT solution to the business problems, and assist in implementing the solution most appropriate to the customer’s business and technical needs.

As IT infrastructure experts, our knowledge includes all of the commonly used operating systems and applications from most of the hardware and software vendors, ranging from Microsoft to RedHat. As independent consultants our recommendations may include any or all of these vendors’ solutions irrespective of personal prejudice.  LinuxIT’s customers are predominantly SMEs across the entire spectrum of vertical market sectors.

Flagship customers include AEA, Star Internet, IBM, HP, NEC and DELL .

For further information, please contact:
Ev Milker
Marketing and PR Manager
LinuxIT
Tel: +44 (0)117 905 8718
e-mail: evm@linuxit.com