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SonnHalter
February 26th, 2009, 12:13 AM
hooray!


The UK government has said it will accelerate the use of open source software in public services.
Tom Watson MP, minister for digital engagement, said open source software would be on a level playing field with proprietary software such as Windows.
Open source software will be adopted "when it delivers best value for money", the government said.
It added that public services should where possible avoid being "locked into proprietary software".
Licenses for the use of open source software are generally free of charge and embrace open standards, and the code that powers the programs can be modified without fear of trampling on intellectual property or copyright.
According to some in the open source industry, the shift from proprietary standards could save the government £600m a year.
Simon Phipps, chief open source officer for Sun Microsystems, said the UK government's stance was part of a "global wave" of take up for open source in governments

"We waste a fortune on proprietary computer software because of paying for licenses and promises up front and not demanding value," he said.
Mr Phipps said schools, government departments and public services would have a "crucial freedom" because of the choice of whether to pay for support and training when using open source software.
The government's action plan could see a wave of open source software being deployed in areas such as office applications (word processing and spreadsheets), document management and database infrastructure, the backbone of many large-scale IT systems.
'More teeth'
Steve Shine, European vice president of Ingres, an open source support vendor, said the government's action plan had "more teeth" than policies being adopted in other countries because the plan was tied into policies regarding how IT managers procure new software.
He said the move had partly been driven by a series of high-profile IT failures in recent years that had relied on proprietary software.
He said: "Open source can help avoid many of the hidden costs of proprietary software such as making organisations re-pay for licenses if they want to shift use of a particular piece of software from one place to another.
"This is irrelevant in the open source world."
Announcing an open source and open standards action plan, the government said it would:
ensure that the government adopts open standards and uses these to communicate with the citizens and businesses that have adopted open source solutions
ensure that open source solutions are considered properly and, where they deliver best value for money are selected for government business solutions
strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities within government and in its suppliers to use open source to greatest advantage
embed an open source culture of sharing, re-use and collaborative development across government and its suppliers
ensure that systems integrators and proprietary software suppliers demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re-use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source.
Government departments will be required to adopt open source software when "there is no significant overall cost difference between open and non-open source products" because of its "inherent flexibility".
Expected backlash
Mr Phipps and Mr Shine said they expected a backlash from proprietary software firms.
"I am absolutely certain there have been communications extremely high-up in proprietary vendors with management high up in government," said Mr Shine.
Mr Phipps added: "Measured over the short term traditional vendors will cut prices back, end load contacts and do everything to appear cheaper.
"But the real value with open source comes from giving users a new flexibility."
He said the widespread adoption of open source software in public services could also have a knock on effect to the ordinary consumer.
"It's already happening to significant extent in the UK. Lots of homes are using Firefox and OpenOffice.org.
"It is becoming acceptable and expected."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7910110.stm

Johnsie
February 26th, 2009, 12:15 AM
IT admins already have an arsenal of hundreds of technical reasons not to use open source.

So that statement made by one person in the UK government won't have much impact on the attitude held by most professional IT experts (who mostly learn MS at university and college).

SonnHalter
February 26th, 2009, 12:17 AM
IT admins already have an arsenal of hundreds of technical reasons not to use open source.

So that statement made by one person in the UK government won't have much impact on the attitude held by most professional IT experts (who mostly learn MS at university and college).

that's simply not true. IT can greatly take advan. to opensource and also its not a statement. its a policy. read.

Dekkon
February 26th, 2009, 12:21 AM
that's simply not true. IT can greatly take advan. to opensource and also its not a statement. its a policy. read.

So it's a policy? So now it's OK to force open-source software on users, isn't that what most people criticized Microsoft for doing, forcing software on users.

kamitsukai
February 26th, 2009, 12:26 AM
Most colleges and universities in the Uk have been using open source software for years just take a look at moodle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle) for instance

Johnsie
February 26th, 2009, 12:28 AM
I don't know many real universities that use Moodle. I studied Software Engineering and most of the course was based on Windows software. We were even given free copies of Windows and Visual Studio. We did also use Java but we were encouraged to use the Borland IDE. We used Blackboard.

jacz
February 26th, 2009, 12:35 AM
I don't know many real universities that use Moodle. I studied Software Engineering and most of the course was based on Windows software. We were even given free copies of Windows and Visual Studio. We did also use Java but we were encouraged to use the Borland IDE.

Generally then it's in your interests that the goverment go with windows os/apps. if the policy gained momentum and eventually limited windows out of the share you would have wasted time at uni studying?

Johnsie
February 26th, 2009, 12:40 AM
Well, as a hobby I do play around with Linux. After years of using it I know that you can't just roll out open source software onto every workstation and expect things to work properly. You have to consider the needs of the user before you decide on which application to use. Sometimes individual OSS packages are ok but sometimes not. Installing Linux on all workstations is a big no no for me because so many people are dependent on certain closed source software that wont run on Linux.

-User X needs Windows to access website Y for her work
-User N needs to run a GPS tracking package to track where the vehicles are. The only local companies that do GPS tracking only have Windows software
-A user needs to open large databases that are too large for OO Calc (yes, there is a limit on the size of file you can open)
-The software needed to add mailsort codes is Windows only, there is no Linux software available to do this.

speedwell68
February 26th, 2009, 01:29 AM
I work in Local Government in the UK and a colleague was recently heavily disciplined for installing Google Chrome and Firefox on a work PC. Our IT department stated that they were nasty pieces of software and that open source was insecure and dangerous. What do they prefer we use as a web browser? IE6.:D