Sign in / up

back to article Specsavers opens eyes to open source

Specsavers, the retail chain of opticians, is putting the finishing touches to an IT refit of its UK operation that has seen it move a third of its applications to open source software. The group is making the same transition across all eight countries in which it operates in order to save money and hassle. Key to the move is …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Steve Renouf

    Whoopee!!

    Great to see the non-proprietory software brigade gaining ground with a high profile international company like this. The proprietory software companies have been holding us to ransom for far too long.

    All we need now is for someone to deal with this regionalised DVD nonsense......!!

    0 0
  2. Anthony Eeles

    Oh Dear. I wonder what Progress think of this...

    Seeing as Specsavers are one of their big case studies...

    http://www.progress.com/progress_software/docs/specsavers.pdf

    Oh, and I think it's Michael Khan, not Michele Kahn!

    0 0
  3. cor

    Well..

    Hit them where it hurts.

    Go Specsavers. Go RedHat. Go Open Source.

    0 0
  4. Daniel Ballado-Torres

    Meanwhile, in the USS Microsoft...

    I can just hear Bill Gates cry...

    KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

    Someone had to say it. Anyway, it is good to see a big company do the switch. To change from Active Directory to OpenLDAP is a bold step indeed.

    0 0
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Go RedHat?

    The the best of my knowledge RedHat sell a version of Linux that all the interesting integration stuff runs on. That's about it.

    Big up to Scalix and Sirius for making the systems work.

    0 0
  6. Rob Beard

    Glad I went to Specsavers

    Well I'm glad I went to Specsavers last week for my new glasses. Maybe if this saves them a whole wad of cash it might make other big corporates think about moving over.

    Rob

    0 0
  7. Douglas Yates

    MS Only Has Itself To Blame

    I was in Specsavers recently talking to one of the guys about the move. He said that a significant factor in the choice of Open Source was the release of Windows Vista.

    Specsavers had been mulling over a change for quite some time, but were stalling because of the cost of familiarising all their staff with a different operating system. Vista gave them the impetus to change because, had they adopted it, they would have had to re-train their staff anyway. Before Vista the choice was to either pay for re-training, or pay for new MS licences. Now the choice is pay for re-training, and either pay more for new Vista licenses, or get Open Source for free. Easy choice.

    0 0
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great, what took them so long

    This is great news and it looks as if Vista will

    do more business for open platforms. Ms takes

    the cake for boneheaded companies. If it were

    my company I'd have gone this way OpenLDAP

    or not if only for the control of software and other

    security goodies the lack of malware and the control

    of users you get with Linux make it seem a natural

    for business settings.

    All of this should be well known so why is it taking so long to sink in.

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.