[Gllug] Dutch parliament mandates open source

[Peter Childs]

On 14/12/2007, Marcus <marcus at fatbeehive.com> wrote:
>
> Rob Crowther wrote:
> > What do you think are the chances
> > of the UK government introducing similar legislation?
> >
> >
> Quite high - but me being quite cynical can't see it changing much in
> the way 'IT' is run by the government. Who decides what a viable
> solution is?
>
> I will offer my 2p worth not knowing much about how much open source
> software the government actually use - but then again nor do they [1]
>
> Another issue is that of resposibility; but could it be any worse? Over
> the past 10 years the amount of money/time/resources wasted on IT in
> this country has been criminal [2] yet contracts are still awared to the
> same companies. I want my government to spend my money responsibly and
> on systems that work. Obviously Microsoft have to take some of the
> responisibilty here - the scale of the projects involved demand a custom
> unique solution - something Microsoft has failed to deliever yet are
> given more money and time to come up with something better/worse. I
> cannot say for sure every project would be better with a open-source
> implementation - but open source has come a long way in 10 years and we
> need people working for the government who really understand this - and
> companies working for the government who can take _real_ responsibility.
> With the Accenture / Micorsoft partnership responsibilty is fragmented
> as one company relies upon the delivery of another. Wouldn't an open
> solution with Redhat / IBM / ??? which create the software on which the
> project relies be better?
>
> Probably preaching to the converted on this list but I look upon this
> legislation as an oppotunity for open source companies to make their
> mark and deliver - and take responsibilty because we all know open
> source software can do anything ;)
>
> Marcus
>
>
I have long since come to the conclusion that if you need a solution to a
specialist problem you need to do it in-house. Because only the in-house
developers can see the entire problem and therefore come up with the best
solution.
Now if your an in house developer you need an open tool box which is what
Open Source gives you. If you tried to do this with a closed source
alternative you would end up spending millions on developer licenses.
This is why government problems fail they are put out to tender to people
who don't know the entire story and come up with the wrong solution.
I'm not suggestion that RedHat, IBM should solve the problem but that HM
Government should employ the staff to solve the problem and get it right. (I
don't really care what tools they use to do that so long as it works)

Peter Childs
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