Latest Examples of Public Sector Moves to Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-21 10:51:48 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-21 10:52:41 UTC
Summary: European software policy as detailed by recent news
UK
-
Parliament is still treating Linux users as though they aren't citizens. It's website, for them, is like the door of an exclusive Soho gentleman's club.
If you aint got Microsoft, you aint getting in - though we might give you a second chance if you go home and change that boho suit.
Video broadcasts of Parliamentary proceedings are designed to be watched by people with Microsoft software.
-
The UK government has revealed that it is considering ditching Microsoft software for open source alternatives. Cabinet minister Frances Maude has said he wants to see a range of software being adopted by the thousands of civil servants that work across departments and believes that this could save millions. Indeed, since Maude spoke out on the matter, it has been suggested that the government has spent more than €£200 million on Microsoft products since 2010 alone.
-
That pales into insignificance with what is going on in the government of the UK. Although they have been making some good noises lately, they are in a deep hole.
-
Tom Morris did some digging and found that only three members of the 23-member board appear to actually be programmers or have a technical background. So a campaign to drive home the importance of programming skills is predominantly made up of people who lack those very same skills.
[...]
A more obvious example of what George Monbiot calls the captive state would be hard to find. This is just a cabal of private businesses looking for a government subsidy to ensure their future profits. Corporate welfare, in other words.
Europe
-
Open source software is creating 'tried-and-tested' solutions addressing interoperability, portability and security, writes ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, in its December 2013 report on standards for cloud computing. Future specifications and standards may derive from open source projects, the standardisation organisation suggests.
France
-
Already 58 candidates for the municipal elections in France have signed April's Free Software Pact, stating that they will support the use of free and open source software. Free software advocacy group April began its support campaign in early January. "Many candidates are keen to announce their support and to detail their plans for freedom in the digital age", the group comments.
-
France's free software advocacy group April has launched a campaign to get candidates for the European elections of 22 - 25 May 2014 to state their support for these type of software solutions. The Free Software Pact campaign is Europe-wide and the group is inviting free and open source enthusiasts to help contact as many candidates as possible.
Belgium
-
The government of the Flanders region in Belgium is using open source for its new open data forum, opened this week Tuesday. The site host is running Linux, web server Apache and content management system Joomla for the open data knowledge exchange website.
-
For their e-government services and their websites, public administrations in Belgium's Walloon region should prefer to use standards and open source software solutions, recommends André Blavier, an ICT expert working for the Agence Wallonie de Télécommunications (AWT), a government agency. Yet an even bigger priority for the Walloon government is making its data publicly available. "Open data will help development digital public services, and create a more transparent government."
Holland
-
TYPO3gem, the user group of Dutch municipalities using the TYPO3 content management system, is becoming a model for other groups of public administrations using open source solutions, according to a study published by the Open Source Observatory and Repository last week. Examples include the group of towns using Drupal, an alternative content management system, and a number of municipalities using zaaksysteem.nl, a case management solution.
Germany
-
Berlin will not switch to open source operating systems for its workstations, the German Linux Magazine reports. The administration of the German city state again dismissed a request by the opposition party Bündnis 90/Greens to replace outdated proprietary desktop systems by open source. Such a switch clashes with the city's efforts to centralise the IT infrastructure.
Switzerland
-
Unanimous bar one abstention, the parliament of the Swiss Canton of Bern yesterday voted in favour of a bill to exploit 'synergies in its software use". The law instructs the canton's public administrations to increase their use of open source, make their own software publicly available and, when starting new IT projects, give priority to this type of solutions. The measure is expected to result in financial savings.
Denmark
-
A group of five Danish municipalities are making available as open source KITOS, their IT project management solution, announces OS2, the Danish online community for public administrations and open source. The solutions will be web-based, letting municipalities manage their IT projects, systems and contracts.
South America
-
Caracas, Feb 7 (Prensa Latina) Experts from Venezuela and Argentina shared experiences on software developed on the basis of free software, as part of the efforts to spread awareness among the population, specialized sources confirmed today.
According to the Nacional Center for Information of Technology (CNTI), development teams operating systems Huayra (Argentina) and Canaima GNU / Linux (Venezuela) met by videoconference to strengthen the work in this area.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Hiring for Tech Roles Based on Perceived Loyalty is No Better Than Hiring to Meet Diversity Quotas
- What we're seeing right now is a national security disaster and it is almost purely about technology
- S.E.O. SPAM by Serial Sloppers With L.L.M. Garbage is Hurting Linux
- We continue to run Slopwatch
- IBM Says That Half of Its "Assets" is Basically Pure Fiction ("Goodwill")
- It times get tough, IBM can sell "Goodwill" at the local pawn shop and pay back the lenders, right?
-
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, February 01, 2025
- Links 01/02/2025: Chinese and American Censorship, Cloud-[sic]Native Targeted by Software Patents
- Links for the day
- Links 01/02/2025: Belated Happy New Year 2025 and Gabbro 0.1.2
- Links for the day
- Links 01/02/2025: Administrative Chaos and Aviation Disasters Persist
- Links for the day
- Arrested: Albanian Outreachy whistleblowers, Sonny Piers GNOME & Debian connections
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 1/2/2025: LLM Hype Revisited, Linuxwashing by Oumi
- Links for the day
- Growing Evidence That the Patent Industry Has Become a Major Scam
- Seeing that the patent "industry" has turned to serious crimes (sometimes to cover up corruption) and seeing that the net negative is clearer for all to see, people who argue for abolition of all patents will have a field day
- Planet Ubuntu Overrun by LLM Slop? Faizul "Piju" 9M2PJU Seems to be Publishing Fake Articles About "Linux"...
- Maybe it is "assisted" by LLM slop, but slop is slop and it introduces many problems
- Gemini Links 01/02/2025: LLMs, Analog Computer, and BorgBackup
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 31, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, January 31, 2025
- Links 31/01/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Microsoft, Sweden Again Fails to Protect Critics of Violence
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux" and More (Latest Roundup Featuring BetaNews, Janus Atienza, and Brittany Day From Guardian Digital, Inc)
- LLM slop season
- Microsoft Staff Explains How Microsoft Swindled Employees and Avoided Paying Out Severance Pay (Microsoft Hasn't Much Money Left in the Bank)
- This is a classic way to avoid paying workers
- "Not one of us" by Dr. Andy Farnell
- Elon Musk has brought embarrassment to nerds and technologists
- Gemini Links 31/01/2025: "Bulletin Buble" and "Why Blog?"
- Links for the day
- Static Site Generators (SSGs) Pay Off: Vastly Faster Sites, Much Smaller Hosting Bills
- success story for SSGs
- Of Note: Linux Foundation Has Already Let Linux.com Rot for About 4 Months (No Activity)
- there's no campaign aside from marketing spam there
- Techrights Should be Even Faster Now
- We're now better off
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 30, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, January 30, 2025
- Richard Stallman (RMS) Gave 3 Talks in India in Less Than a Week
- In India this month we've not seen a single negative comment about RMS
- Indian Data Biases statCounter For or Against "Linux"
- In statCounter, the GNU/Linux increases and decreases are deeply tied to what it does with data collected in India
- The Corporate Media Pretends That Facebook ("Meta") Has Performed Well, But Its Debt Doubles Every 2 Years Despite Mass Layoffs
- That same media also helps parrot misleading financial claims
- Microsoft's Debt Surged by More Than 6,000,000,000 Dollars in Just 3 Months
- numbers released hours ago
- The Sheer Irony of Microsoft Proxy Accusing Others of 'Stealing'
- Wherever DeepSick's data came from, Microsoft (or its proxy) is in no position to issue criticism.
- The Difference a Decade (and GAFAM Money) Makes
- Credibility cannot be purchased
- [Meme] The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Critics Because Its Message is Effective
- Applying to others the same standards one is willing to violate?
