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That whitepaper isn't really FUD. It's basically just explaining 'open source' to people who don't really get it. The paper explains that Oracle software includes open source software and then Oracle is arguing that they do a better job of developing, leveraging, integrating, and supporting FOSS than IT workers in gov't offices can. It's a fairly reasonable argument.

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I beg to differ. The UK government (finally) has got its act together in this department. We're seeing the NHS's core "Spine" system being rewritten using open source software (riak/erlang/ubuntu + others) and we have the excellent http://gov.uk/ as well.

And then you have a look at the new Universal Credit scheme. Glad IT schemes to do with the NHS are improving though.

Good point. I do however feel that the government departments that have failed miserably on projects will start looking at more successful projects for inspiration. We'll be a few more £billion down by then but things will improve.

HMRC's systems are pretty good these days as well (I just did my tax return online). Relatively smooth process for a large Java behemoth.

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