Bonum Certa Men Certa

British Government Under Fire for Ignoring Free(dom) Software, Responds With Face-Saving Promise

Letting the US manage the UK digitally

David Cameron and Barack Obama



Summary: The British government misses an opportunity to employ Computer Science students who are eager to lay their hands on source code; instead it continues to sign cheques for Microsoft and under pressure it makes the mere promise of "evaluating" an open source vendor

NOT so long ago we wrote about government procurement in the UK, noting that unfair bidding processes were excluding Free software. As we have already shown, sections of the public sector, including BECTA and the NHS for example, have been deep in Microsoft's pocket. Microsoft and its allies are bullying smaller companies out of the room, just like in South Africa. Such cartel-like practices should be investigated, but they never come close to any substantial scrutiny. If someone complains about this, a fatwa/SLAPP gets used to silence the complainer. The UK is very libel lawsuits-friendly.



There are many articles about the subject of the UK government snubbing Free software. The most prominent one was in the BBC (from Rory) although there are some other reports that we put in our daily links. Here are some of the latest and belated ones:

1. UK Gov Struggling with Open Source, Spending Heavily on Proprietary Software

Despite its promise to embrace open source software for cutting down IT expenditures, the UK government has been consistently paying a hefty amount on proprietary technologies, a new report claims.

The matter was brought in to daylight by BBC after it had filed a Freedom of Information request as a part of its investigation to highlight the government's policies regarding software procurement.

The BBC report states that despite making bold claims about embracing open source software products, the government continues to rely heavily on the bigger firms and their proprietary products.


2. Whitehall breaks open source promise

Many departments in Whitehall appear to have given up on promises to spend more on open source, and are instead continuing to lay out huge sums on proprietary software.

Following a number of BBC freedom of information requests it has been revealed millions are still being spent on software from big name vendors.

This is despite claims from Francis Maude that there will be a ‘level playing field’, centred around the government’s promises to slash public spending. Even the Queen's neighbourhood has been looking to the cheap alternative.


These people are giving themselves another chance after betraying voters, according to this article which says "UK.gov works on YET ANOTHER open-source push":

Yet another government definition for the term "open standards" is incoming because the Home Office isn't satisfied with the current wording of its so-called Action Plan.

The department's IT wonk Tariq Rashid confirmed at an open source forum in Oxford yesterday that the government had been "lobbying against" the current definition for open standards, and added that a new version was set to be published by the end of 2011.

At the TransferSummit event he spoke about how a policy to encourage open source, open standards and re-use of software across central and local government had been mulled over since 2004 without any real action kicking in. And that's despite several redrafts.

[...]

Rashid said that within the next year, all gov departments would have a mandatory requirement to demonstrate they had fairly evaluated an open source vendor for any new software procurement.


Well, we shall see. Words are cheap. Romania used a similar trick to pretend that it at least consider Free software as well. This does not oblige one to make such a choice, just to say it was "evaluated". Corrupt procurement processes are much of what we'll show in upcoming leaked diplomatic cable. It helps to have a lot of evidence.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025