[Gllug] Dutch parliament mandates open source

[Marcus]

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

1
http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsID=10498&pagtype=samechan
2
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/itgovernment/story/0,10801,97853,00.html



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