Erwin's StarOffice Tango

Large Dutch cities supporting open source
Arthur Buijs from the Dutch OpenOffice.org community just pointed me to this Dutch article. According to the article, a number of large Dutch cities including Almere, Assen, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Leeuwarden and Nijmegen have decided to support open source. The article says that the cities are interested in open source because Microsoft software is being perceived as expensive and the software does not not work well together with competitive products on other platforms.
( Dez 07 2006, 11:47:36 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [2]

Kommentare:

I wish some of our Australian authorities would pull their collective fingers out this far, instead of dithering, um-ming & but-ting the concept to death.

Gesendet von Leon Brooks am Dezember 10, 2006 at 10:09 AM CET #

Here is the full article: A large number of big cities don't want to be dependent of Microsoft anymore. Together they have 1.2 million inhabitants. They demand open source software from their suppliers. Almost all desktops run Microsoft Windows and also have word processors and spreadsheets made by the American software giant installed. It has been some time that counties - and not only in the Netherlands - try to be less dependent of Microsoft. For some time there have been very good alternative programs. Some are even free of charge. In real life, they are rarely used because ict-companies do not support them. Attempts to force them have run into problems with European legislation. Eight large Dutch counties have now taken the first step by publishing a manifest calling on ict-companies to support open source. In fact Almere, Assen, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Leeuwarden and Nijmegen are giving a message to these suppliers, saying they don't stand a chance getting major orders if they don't comply. Some of these counties have already dumped their suppliers for that reason. The software of Microsoft - and some other leading (database) companies - is not only expensive. Another problem is that their data is not exchangable with competitors programs. These software giants also invent new standards, forcing their clients to buy new software and convert their data to those new standards. Dutch government promotes the use of open standards and open source by their Ososs program. A spokesman of Ososs says the action of these counties is a true breakthrough for open source software.

Gesendet von Hans Bezemer am Dezember 10, 2006 at 02:39 PM CET #