Government in the market for more open source software

But experts say government must give developers a clearer idea of what it wants

The government reaffirmed its commitment to open source at a system integrators forum held by the Cabinet Office late last week, but many experts believe the public sector is still too wary of using non-proprietary software.

After attending the event, open source system integrator Sirius wrote in a blog that the government is pushing open source software in the public sector.

"The message of the day was simple, and delivered with panache by deputy government CIO Bill McCluggage," said the Sirius blog.

"The message was 'We want you to give us open source software, in fact we insist!'."

Analyst for Ovum Laurent Lachal said that apparent enthusiasm for open source is not new, but that uptake remains slow.

"This is an ongoing saga, and because the government wants to save money it will continue this way," said Lachal.

"However, this is a game and there is a lot of politics involved. The reality is that things are very slow. This is due to a lack of government understanding of open source, a lack of skill on their part, as well as entrenched relationships with specific vendors," he added.

"It is however good to remind the world that the UK is going in the right direction. France and Germany are miles ahead in open source uptake, and we need to show that we aren't averse to it."

Tom Cahill, vice president of EMEA sales for open source software vendor Jaspersoft, concurred, saying the UK still has a phobia about the word 'open'.

"The government needs not to be locked into contracts with legacy propriety software vendors, as this compromises free decision making and will slow uptake," said Cahill.

"However, it isn't doing enough to promote open source. The public sector needs to be less scared of the word ‘open'," he added.

"We don't see this on the Continent, and the reason is that in English the word open translates into ease of access, and implies lack of security. This isn't true of similar words in French or German.

"But with open source it isn't the security that is open, it is just the code".

Lachal said the government needs to work more closely with open source developers.

"The government needs to interact more with the open source community, it should make more effort, and vendors need to have a focus," said Lachal.

"Government should actually appoint somebody to champion open source and they should be clear by producing standards so that everybody knows where they stand.

"The question is no longer is open source ready for the public sector, but is the public sector ready for open source?"