Open source gets govt nod

Many government departments are migrating to open source software, says Linux System Dynamics technical director, Stefan Lesicnik.

This is according to Stefan Lesicnik, technical director for Linux System Dynamics, who spoke during Obsidian Systems' first quarterly Free Beer Session last week.

He said a lot of government departments are migrating to run open source software in the back-end. However, he explained that end-users are generally reluctant to change, and this makes front-end migrations to open source more difficult.

Government interest

Lesicnik noted: “SITA is currently developing and piloting a Linux desktop and some government institutions have deployed Linux and other open source software already.”

According to Lesicnik, the South African government is mandated through legislation to comply with the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) policy and the Open Document Format.

The FOSS charter claims that, on average, open source software provides the same functionality as proprietary software, but without the vendor lock-in, and at an 80% to 90% lower cost to taxpayers. In addition, support can be provided by anyone, since the code is in the public domain.

Testing tech

Lesicnik said awareness around the benefits of open source is increasing, with more businesses adopting the technology. “Businesses are increasingly mindful of the cost to implement new applications and then run and maintain these applications in the long-term.

“Open source provides a mechanism for them to test and try these applications before purchasing maintenance and support. JBoss is a good example of a popular open source Java application server that competes head-to-head with the propriety application servers.”

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