[Sussex] Another country gets a clue!

[Geoff Teale]

Hot on the heels of Chine, Korea, most of South America, France,
Germany, Denmark, and Norway this morning we have news of another
Nations government moving to Open Source solutions.

The following is reposted from the South African website "Business day"
at:
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1266306-6099-0,00.html

State to save billions on software
Crippling licence fees will be avoided by using free open-source
programs

Information Technology Editor

WHEN Microsoft introduced a new licensing model for its software late
last year, simmering resentment within government finally boiled over.

For months the State IT Agency had winced at the incessant expense of
buying software licences for hundreds of thousands of staff spread
across government departments. Now the agency has declared that it will
ditch expensive brand name software in many cases and switch to
opensource alternatives.

The move should save at least R3bn a year, says agency chief information
officer Mojalefa Moseki. The policy should also help to create a new
generation of programmers skilled in developing their own applications.

The beauty of open-source software is that its underlying code can be
accessed so that end users can modify it to suit their needs or build
new applications. Equally compelling for cashstrapped governments is
that many of the programs are free, with suppliers making their money by
supporting the systems.

"Government spends close to R3bn a year on software licences alone,"
says Moseki. With support and upgrade costs added, the total bill was a
punishing R9,4bn last year. "Barely a cent of that is spent in SA
because all the companies like Microsoft, Sun, IBM and Lotus are
multinationals, so the money goes abroad. SA is a consumer of software,
but we can develop it ourselves."

Moseki says the small-scale introduction of open-source in some
departments has already saved R10m. To make sure a fullscale switch is
sustainable, the agency will work with universities and private
companies and set up a resources centre with the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) to help develop programming skills.

SA has a pool of very talented software developers, and government's
commitment to open- source will create an opportunity for them to
flourish, he believes.

CSIR CEO Sibusiso Sibisi agrees. "Our ultimate goal is to stimulate the
birth of companies and an entire industry based on open source
software," he said.

Arguments that open-source software is too unstable to run
mission-critical systems are proving groundless as the technologies have
improved steadily, driven by talented developers eager to break free
from costly bigname brands.  In many cases it is noted that open-source
solutions are more stable and secure than their costly competition.

Governments in France, Germany and Peru are advocates of open-source,
along with the state authorities in California.

The growing tide has persuaded companies including Sun and IBM to offer
open-source, knowing they can still make money on the hardware to run it
and ancillary services.

Moseki says the departments using open-source software in SA have seen
increased security and more up-time, as the software is supported
internally with no need to call in an outside company to resolve any
problems.

Microsoft stands to lose heavily from government's move, although it
will not specify how much business it earns from the state. And last
year it launched a project to give free software to all 32000 government
schools.

Last week the company followed up with the surprise news that it will
open its source code to governments worldwide so they can enhance the
security of its software. That is a calculated move to entrench its
position in government markets. But Microsoft's move has come too late
to affect the agency's decision.

"The logic for open-source is so compelling that after a year of debates
we decided to stop talking and declare government an open-source zone,"
says Moseki.

Microsoft's country manager Gordon Frazer argues that governments must
evaluate each application individually rather than routinely opt for
open-source over commercial software.

"It's a very popular technology today, but ultimately it's not a
sustainable business model. What happens when the developers who find it
exciting today move on to something which will pay the bills?"

He says there are higher expenses for the management, upgrading and
security of opensource software.

And while government's idea of training open-source developers is
admirable, it will not create new jobs but will simply replace thousands
of existing jobs for people who now work with proprietary software, he
argues.