Hi asa<br><br>from the answer they gave you it seems that they have in house only developers skilled and trained on Microsoft technology. It is an uphill battle to convince them that they need to throw away what they have and start from scratch with technology they don't master.<br>
<br>their ideas are confused, at best. The fact that Oracle bought mysql doesn't change the fact that mysql can be run for free. Any debian installation has the full mysql server code running, easy to setup and always up to date (security patches included, for free). <br>
By buying Microsoft they simply increase their dependency on Microsoft tools. BTW, Mysql runs and is supported on Windows too.<br><br>You may want to talk also to Code for America to help educate them and offer alternative solutions to develop this custom app.<br>
<br>hth,<br>stef<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/5/23 Asa Dodsworth <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:asa.dodsworth@gmail.com">asa.dodsworth@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
The City Of Berkeley IT staff say that Open Source Database software wold not be desirable, would ya'll like to assess their assessment..<br>I ask as I'm a rent board commissioner who has been trying to understand how opensource software can be used to address our software needs.<br>
<br>asa<br><br><br>Hi, Jay. Here is a brief explanation of how Open Source would play into
your project and why it wasn't considered.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<b>Open Source would make the task of automating the Rent Board much more
simple.<br>
</b>The biggest challenge the Rent Board faces is converting a manual system
that had loosely defined business rules that were not consistently applied into
a software system that rigorously enforces business rules. We have agreed
that there is no off-the-shelf solution that can meet the Rent Board's
needs. As we've seen over the past year, the process of formalizing
business rules is a cultural problem rather than a technological one.
Once we have accurately and thoroughly defined the business rules, the software
development process is essentially the same whether we choose Open Source or
proprietary tools.<br>
<b><br>
Open Source would require less of an investment for the Rent Board.<br>
</b>Since we have determined that there is no readily available off-the-shelf
solution to adequately fulfill the Rent Board's needs, the only software
required is server, web server and database software. Since the City has
an existing Enterprise agreement with Microsoft and is using virtualization,
there is no cost to the Rent Board for server and web server software.
The City could choose to use MySQL for a database platform, but since Oracle
acquired Sun Microsystems, MySQL Enterprise edition (required for an enterprise
application like RTS) would be roughly the same cost as SQL Server. Since
our network engineers, database administrator and programmers are all familiar
with SQL Server and do not have MySQL experience, there would be an additional
ongoing cost to train staff and keep them educated on two disparate database
platforms. <br>
<br>
<b>Open Source prevents prevents price gouging and other predatory practices by
companies like Microsoft and Oracle.</b><br clear="all">
In theory, this is correct. The source code for Open Source software like
MySQL is published intermittently so that any developer can support the
software should the vendor's business practices take an unattractive
turn. However, a customized version of MySQL, for instance, carries other
risks. First, database design and coding is extremely specialized and not
something most programmers are familiar with. It's possible that the 3rd
party that supports the product is not qualified to modify the code.
Secondly, maintaining a customized version of the software is expensive and not
most vendor's core business. It's unlikely a vendor would modify
something like a database engine or operating system unless they had very
specialized needs and experience to address those needs. Once a vendor
has modified the base code, it could become proprietary unless they turn around
an publish it, thereby counteracting the benefit of going with Open Source in
the first place. In terms of City staff modifying Open Source software,
the cost would be very high, we would need specialized, dedicated staff to
maintain and support the software, and the risk of the software becoming
unstable would be very high. City programmers are competent at creating
small, specialized applications for those needs that can't be filled by
commercial software -- customizing databases and operating systems exceeds
their skill set.<br>
<br>
<b>Open Source is like alternative energy -- it's the right thing to do and we
should support it or else it will never get a solid foothold.<br>
</b>First acknowledging the points made above, this is a valid point.
Open Source may be a viable option for the City in the future but it is not
currently viable. Municipal governments typically let private enterprise
work out the kinks before taking risks on new technology. In the past 5
years, we have slowly but steadily begun using cloud services for some
applications -- when it made sense and we could justify the risk. If we
are to use Open Source in the future, we will approach it in the same,
deliberate way and with adequate research and preparation.<br>
<br>
<br>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Keith Skinner<br>
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