[A2k] Open source gets European boost

[Teresa Hackett (eIFL)]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6270657.stm

Open source gets European boost

Some large firms like Oracle use open source software
The European Commission has added its voice to the debate about the use
of open source software.

A report funded by the Commission concludes that the software could
offer considerable savings to organisations with little effect on their
business.

The report found that in "almost all" cases long-term costs could be
reduced by switching from proprietary software produced by firms such as
Microsoft.

However, it warned that a move to open source could increase short term
costs.

This would be largely be due to increased training for users of the
software, said the authors of the report who are based at the United
Nations University in Maastricht.

But some proprietary manufacturers such as Microsoft do not believe that
open source always means cheaper. In 2004 the company launched a
campaign called Get The Facts that gave examples of where its software
was cheaper and more reliable than open source products.

Voluntary contribution

Open source software refers to software where the underlying programming
code is made available to users to read, alter and improve. This is in
contrast to proprietary software where a company controls the source
code to prevent changes being made.

A great deal of open source software is produced and distributed for
free by volunteer programmers, although some companies, such as Red Hat,
do sell open source products and associated services to get them up and
running.

The study estimates that just one-third of open source programs are
produced by businesses in Europe.

Software made by volunteers includes operating systems, such as Linux,
and Microsoft Office-like programs such as OpenOffice.org.

Open source programs are already used by many companies particularly to
run web servers, the computers that store and deliver web pages.

According to the study, the number of existing open source programs
already available would have cost firms 12 billion Euros (=A38 billion) to
produce.

It estimates that the available programs represent the equivalent of
131,000 programmer years.

"This represents at least 800 million Euros (=A3525 million) in voluntary
contributions from programmers alone each year," the report said.

At the moment, the report said, public organisations were the dominant
beneficiaries of this work.

To continue this uptake, the report recommends "correcting current
policies and practices that implicitly or explicitly favour proprietary
software".

As well as providing incentives to the open source industry it also
recommends that schools start to introduce more of the software.

This would instil "an attitude towards information technology that
favours the ability to create and actively participate rather than just
consume," the report said.

This view echoes those of 111 UK MPs who signed an early day motion in
December 2006 to support the use of open source in schools.

The motion also criticised the "outdated" methods used to purchase
software for schools that locked them into buying proprietary software.