The story of unsuccessful attempts to introduce open source software in a single state office
Good day, Habr!
The other day, a topic flashed on Habré with arguments about open source software in government offices and why things are not the way it was intended and wanted. I want to share my work experience after graduation in one provincial MIFNS (Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service) and my thoughts why it is as it is.
It all started in 2010, when I graduated from university, and since I didn’t go into the army (although they couldn’t pick me up as a “programmer at headquarters” and I didn’t particularly plan to), because of problems with my spine, the issue of employment arose. I didn’t have much hope to get a high salary right away, as the parents of the teacher and there is no cronyism, and I truly believed that the university taught me everything in order to become a highly qualified specialist in a couple of years and only needed primary work experience and non-empty work. Therefore, I went to my hometown and started looking for a place to work. There were 2 places to choose from: a computer repair service and a local branch of the tax inspectorate. Thinking that being an administrator assistant with a network of 80 stations is better than picking motherboards with a soldering iron, I chose the second option. I admit honestly, I thought that since the office is state-owned, either everything is licensed there, so that the strictest mosquito will not sweep the nose, or the STR is implemented. When applying for a job, the head of the information department smiled, but refused to tell how it was arranged, citing official secrets and that “you will see everything yourself”.
And what did I see. A network with switches and servers, the youngest of which was born in 2005, a network of computers that were purchased in 2003 based on Intel Celeron 2.7 GHz and 4 computers from two deputies, an accountant and an inspection chief based on Intel Core i3. Absolutely on all computers, except for the four that were purchased with the OEM license of Windows 7, there were various assemblies, by the way, laid out on the FTP management server, as well as Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2008. There was no licensing issue at all . Also there were various “winrars, photoshop, sockeye”. Since people did not have time for work, the authorities forced TeamViewer or AmmyAdmin to be set up in order to allow working from home, contrary to safety requirements. VPN connections were dismissed because of the “difficulty for the inspector,” although I did not understand what it was. Only Kaspersky was licensed, purchased by the administration of the region. The network was stretched anyhow, the twisted pair hung on the walls (what kind of cable channels?), Not a single outlet was marked on the switches, and the stand with switches reminded Cthulhu (see the picture below), in some rooms where 2 sockets were provided , while the inspectors sat 3-5, stood the 1005th d-link, and on the floor under the tables and chairs dangled a few meters of cable, which also gave "great joy."
')
In general, to say that I was shocked - to say nothing. The working day began with the fact that we rebooted the combat server with the base of our AIS, praying that it would reboot normally, because at night, after passing backup 3-4 times a week, it would hang tight (maybe I'm very inexperienced, but keep 250 + GB base on a server with 10 GB of RAM, I think, very sad). After there was a check whether backups went, or the server hung earlier, whether other elevated services had fallen, with users restarting their little friends d-links and other pleasures like “I have it there, but it’s not this” and long conversations with technical support AIS. But this is all the lyrics. The issue of allocation of funds and other things.
The entire infrastructure is built on Win servers, all software is only for windows, and basically it works correctly only under XP and the “Most Main AIS” requires that a working user has local administrator rights. Here a question arises: what kind of SPOs can we talk about, if you tell your boss that it would be nice to start licensing, that it wasn’t 2000 in the courtyard, to which you were told that “we are who will check us? ” Okay.
I want to say that my boss had a good man, but not a very good boss. My boss was 43 years old and he didn’t really need anything. He was picking all day in the AIS database, correcting users' shoals and what was going on outside this process did not bother him at all. Therefore, I received the go-ahead to do anything, but so that he, the chief, did not get kicked off from the management.
For two years of work in the inspection, I poured "photoshop, nera, vinrara" and put "gimps, sidiberner, 7zipy", knocked out money for cable tags to mark what and where to disassemble Cthulhu, forgive me Great, removed five-port switches from the cabinets, together with the electrician, on weekends, they tugged on the network through cable channels. Perhaps this is ridiculous, but the department’s annual budget stood out for everything about everything: in 2010 70 thousand rubles, in 2011 97 thousand rubles.
I was well aware that there would be tremendous resistance from the users and that the process should be gradual. Therefore, I selected several users who normally and adequately transferred innovations and spent several hours of technical training for them. They liked the office, in principle. Then I conducted a workshop for the entire inspection. Opponents did not seem to be found. But when the introduction was completed and everyone got used to the new icons, a terrible thing happened. I was summoned to the authorities, reprimanded and deprived of bonuses, more precisely, they said that the quarterly bonus would be practically zero, since I am a pest and useless employee. All because one of the inspectors, having saved the document in ODF, sent it to a court, they could not open it there, referring to the fact that the file of an unknown format and the inspectorate lost an important court.
There was another very big problem. User support was implemented as follows: users with a kick opened the doors and demanded that they urgently do what they need, otherwise they will go to the authorities. No matter what you do. The problem of the newly logged in user was the most important. It did not suit me. I wanted a human HelpDesk, or at least the internal address of the e-mail address to which users would write their problems, and that the applications should be executed in order of priority or importance. It seemed to the authorities that this was absolutely unnecessary thing. For six months I communicated with the department of information management and dripped them on the brain. The guys said that they themselves want to make a decision from above, but they are not given them. In the end, after a year and a half it happened. A letter arrived that from such a date, all work should be carried out only at the request of users in HelpDesk. Training was conducted. In principle, everything was simple: open IE, according to the default HelpDesk. Choose your surname, write a message, click send. 4 months after implementation, before my dismissal, no applications from users were received, as I did not persuade users. Then I quit.
The introduction of open source software is quite a complicated process. In government agencies, where everything is implemented and designed for the Windows environment at the moment, this is impossible, and I am not talking about any application programs like graphic editors or archivers. While all implementations will be in the public sector according to the principle, do it without knowing what, install there, not knowing where, about the introduction of free offices or, especially, operating systems in principle impossible. Although this is only my opinion, perhaps the wrong one.
The other day, a topic flashed on Habré with arguments about open source software in government offices and why things are not the way it was intended and wanted. I want to share my work experience after graduation in one provincial MIFNS (Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service) and my thoughts why it is as it is.
Start
It all started in 2010, when I graduated from university, and since I didn’t go into the army (although they couldn’t pick me up as a “programmer at headquarters” and I didn’t particularly plan to), because of problems with my spine, the issue of employment arose. I didn’t have much hope to get a high salary right away, as the parents of the teacher and there is no cronyism, and I truly believed that the university taught me everything in order to become a highly qualified specialist in a couple of years and only needed primary work experience and non-empty work. Therefore, I went to my hometown and started looking for a place to work. There were 2 places to choose from: a computer repair service and a local branch of the tax inspectorate. Thinking that being an administrator assistant with a network of 80 stations is better than picking motherboards with a soldering iron, I chose the second option. I admit honestly, I thought that since the office is state-owned, either everything is licensed there, so that the strictest mosquito will not sweep the nose, or the STR is implemented. When applying for a job, the head of the information department smiled, but refused to tell how it was arranged, citing official secrets and that “you will see everything yourself”.
How was it
And what did I see. A network with switches and servers, the youngest of which was born in 2005, a network of computers that were purchased in 2003 based on Intel Celeron 2.7 GHz and 4 computers from two deputies, an accountant and an inspection chief based on Intel Core i3. Absolutely on all computers, except for the four that were purchased with the OEM license of Windows 7, there were various assemblies, by the way, laid out on the FTP management server, as well as Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2008. There was no licensing issue at all . Also there were various “winrars, photoshop, sockeye”. Since people did not have time for work, the authorities forced TeamViewer or AmmyAdmin to be set up in order to allow working from home, contrary to safety requirements. VPN connections were dismissed because of the “difficulty for the inspector,” although I did not understand what it was. Only Kaspersky was licensed, purchased by the administration of the region. The network was stretched anyhow, the twisted pair hung on the walls (what kind of cable channels?), Not a single outlet was marked on the switches, and the stand with switches reminded Cthulhu (see the picture below), in some rooms where 2 sockets were provided , while the inspectors sat 3-5, stood the 1005th d-link, and on the floor under the tables and chairs dangled a few meters of cable, which also gave "great joy."
')
In general, to say that I was shocked - to say nothing. The working day began with the fact that we rebooted the combat server with the base of our AIS, praying that it would reboot normally, because at night, after passing backup 3-4 times a week, it would hang tight (maybe I'm very inexperienced, but keep 250 + GB base on a server with 10 GB of RAM, I think, very sad). After there was a check whether backups went, or the server hung earlier, whether other elevated services had fallen, with users restarting their little friends d-links and other pleasures like “I have it there, but it’s not this” and long conversations with technical support AIS. But this is all the lyrics. The issue of allocation of funds and other things.
The entire infrastructure is built on Win servers, all software is only for windows, and basically it works correctly only under XP and the “Most Main AIS” requires that a working user has local administrator rights. Here a question arises: what kind of SPOs can we talk about, if you tell your boss that it would be nice to start licensing, that it wasn’t 2000 in the courtyard, to which you were told that “we are who will check us? ” Okay.
What was done
I want to say that my boss had a good man, but not a very good boss. My boss was 43 years old and he didn’t really need anything. He was picking all day in the AIS database, correcting users' shoals and what was going on outside this process did not bother him at all. Therefore, I received the go-ahead to do anything, but so that he, the chief, did not get kicked off from the management.
For two years of work in the inspection, I poured "photoshop, nera, vinrara" and put "gimps, sidiberner, 7zipy", knocked out money for cable tags to mark what and where to disassemble Cthulhu, forgive me Great, removed five-port switches from the cabinets, together with the electrician, on weekends, they tugged on the network through cable channels. Perhaps this is ridiculous, but the department’s annual budget stood out for everything about everything: in 2010 70 thousand rubles, in 2011 97 thousand rubles.
Attempt to implement OOo
I was well aware that there would be tremendous resistance from the users and that the process should be gradual. Therefore, I selected several users who normally and adequately transferred innovations and spent several hours of technical training for them. They liked the office, in principle. Then I conducted a workshop for the entire inspection. Opponents did not seem to be found. But when the introduction was completed and everyone got used to the new icons, a terrible thing happened. I was summoned to the authorities, reprimanded and deprived of bonuses, more precisely, they said that the quarterly bonus would be practically zero, since I am a pest and useless employee. All because one of the inspectors, having saved the document in ODF, sent it to a court, they could not open it there, referring to the fact that the file of an unknown format and the inspectorate lost an important court.
Implementing HelpDesk
There was another very big problem. User support was implemented as follows: users with a kick opened the doors and demanded that they urgently do what they need, otherwise they will go to the authorities. No matter what you do. The problem of the newly logged in user was the most important. It did not suit me. I wanted a human HelpDesk, or at least the internal address of the e-mail address to which users would write their problems, and that the applications should be executed in order of priority or importance. It seemed to the authorities that this was absolutely unnecessary thing. For six months I communicated with the department of information management and dripped them on the brain. The guys said that they themselves want to make a decision from above, but they are not given them. In the end, after a year and a half it happened. A letter arrived that from such a date, all work should be carried out only at the request of users in HelpDesk. Training was conducted. In principle, everything was simple: open IE, according to the default HelpDesk. Choose your surname, write a message, click send. 4 months after implementation, before my dismissal, no applications from users were received, as I did not persuade users. Then I quit.
Results
The introduction of open source software is quite a complicated process. In government agencies, where everything is implemented and designed for the Windows environment at the moment, this is impossible, and I am not talking about any application programs like graphic editors or archivers. While all implementations will be in the public sector according to the principle, do it without knowing what, install there, not knowing where, about the introduction of free offices or, especially, operating systems in principle impossible. Although this is only my opinion, perhaps the wrong one.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/189162/
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