Government Open Source: Using Open Source

Governments around the world are seriously considering an open source based office infrastructure over the Microsoft solution. Brazil, Germany, and France have gone as far as mandating that open source or open standard software be treated preferentially to completely proprietary solutions.

The office infrastructure market—including network server O/S, desktop O/S and office applications—was once highly competitive, with a typical site deploying products from three or four major vendors. Ten years on, Microsoft have a near monopoly. Open source software in this context is novel, but it is Microsoft’s only serious competition, and it is already causing them to consider the issues of interoperability, and pricing.

For Governments, open source offers several advantages over the Microsoft solution:

• Procurement is free (as in beer).

• Decisions to deploy new or upgraded software may be made solely on technical and business grounds, without being subject to the whims of Microsoft Sales and Marketing.

• Open source software is more trustworty than that purveyed by a monopoly.

• Open source suits marginal budgets; there are many applications that will run acceptably on older hardware.

• Citizens have free (as in speech) access to the tools required to review and comment on Government generated documentation.

To be sure, there are disadvantages to choosing Open Source solutions too:

• Open source software is generally less mature and well polished than the equivalent commercial packages.

• Government departments are somewhat locked-in to Microsoft’s non-standard, non-interoperable file formats.

• Open source products aren’t made by companies that run accrediation programs, so there aren’t many people officially certified to work with the technology.

Overall though, Governments using open source is a Good Thing. It is good for the department using the software, and it is good for the people they serve—you and me.

Government open source is also good increasing the quality and range of office software generally. I hope the new competition in this market continues to the point where users once again have a serious choice of products in this area.