Open Source 'Wasn't Available' Two Years Ago, Says UK Gov't IT Project Chief 113
An anonymous reader writes "The head of delivery for the UK's Department for Work and Pensions' flagship welfare reform project, Universal Credit, has said that the department didn't adopt open source and web-based technologies at the beginning of the project because 'such things weren't available' two and a half years ago. Howard Shiplee told the Work and Pensions Committee this week that the department is now using open source technologies in its enhanced version of Universal Credit, which was initially developed by the Government Digital Service (GDS) and will be rolled out nationally by 2017 for most claimants. The existing system being used in pathfinder pilots and developed by the likes of IBM, HP and Accenture will be largely be replaced by the digital version."
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)
I was wondering myself, incompetent or corrupt? I do see IBM involved, so it could be both.
Re:And Earth is only about 8,000 years old? (Score:5, Funny)
Some of these people literally believe that the Internet is a corporate creation that was spearheaded by Bill Gates... so you can see how solidly they understand the history of networking.
A buddy of mine was once consulting for a firm whose new "CTO" argued with him, vehemently insisting that Bill Gates invented TCP/IP...
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
> It reminds me of what ESR said in his magnum opus, The Cathedral and the Bizarre: Linux is only free if your time has no value.
Clearly someone that's never used Oracle or SAP.