Germany backs Open Source Software

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday June 06, 2002 16:04

by Markos

The German Goverment has made a deal with IBM and Suse backing Open Source Software in Principle and intends backing it in practice. This is the latest in a global trend for the free, collaboratively produced technology which powers most indymedia sites.

What do the following countries have in common: Peru, Mexico, Argentina Brazil, France, Italy, China, Taiwan, the USA and Australia? Answer: they all officially use Linux and Open Source software in some capacity or another, ranging from exclusive use (South America) or use by some state departments or agencies such as post offices or the military (the west).

This week Germany joined these nations in availing of Open Source software by striking a deal with IBM and Suse (a Linux distribution)
which makes it easier and cheaper for the German governmental departments to choose a Linux solution for their IT infrastructure.
This amounts to a major boost for the formerly upstart, rebel software which is collaboratively produced by programmers, often unpaid,
over the Internet. It is also interestingly timed as the deadline draws near for Microsoft's new licensing agreements which shift emphasis
from once off payments for software to a model closer to subscription.

The move follows a report commissioned by the German government into the viability of OSS use in government departments. The report found that Linux was viable, particularly as a server operating system where it offers reliability, interoperability and stability as well as
savings where money is concerned (Linux is distributed free of charge, with payments made contributing towards support and other
services).

However, the Germans threw in another angle for their recent move.With the contract with IBM we meet three key targets," Otto Schily, Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of
Germany, said in a statement. "We raise the level of IT security by avoiding monocultures; we lower the dependency on single software vendors; and we reach costs savings in software and operation costs." In the post September the 11th world, security is being touted as a reason for avoiding a proprietary software monoculture such as
organisations which run products almost entirely from one producer.

In South America, they go further again, stating that state owned public information, within a democracy, should not be stored in proprietary formats but in formats that are open and in the public domain. Similarly, software whose code is open and not sold in a closed, binary format is more open to scrutiny by security experts
and therefore safer from unwelcome third party access.

All lofty reasons for the alternative choice. On a more mundane level though, Linux and Open Source software have matured to the extent
that distributions such as Mandrake provide most of what your average computer user is looking for, not just the experts. They have attractive desktop environments such as KDE and Gnome and boast full productivity and Internet suites rivaling Windows and Office.

We're told that our own public finances will need close attention in the coming years as tax revenues dwindle from the highs of our
boom years. It is only a matter of time before questions are asked of our own government as to whether the public purse would be better
and more thriftily served by supporting public code.