Mille

Around the World

Overview

The independence of organizations and governments from a monopoly distributor in the computer software sector is at the heart of the debate and inevitably leads to considering the use of free software.

Indeed, by being exclusively equipped with the products of a distributor in a monopoly position, companies, but also organizations and governments, are dependent on the choices of this distributor. In addition, by adopting proprietary software and formats, organizations condemn themselves to always repurchasing products from the same distributor, if only for the warranty, maintenance, development of the software or even to preserve compatibility with their products. old data. Indeed, proprietary software often rhymes with proprietary and non-standard data format.

It therefore appears that the transition from proprietary software and formats to open products cannot be done easily. Indeed, for this transition to take place smoothly, free solutions must ensure compatibility with the data already present in the organization.

Independence from a distributor is not the only motivation for governments to turn to the world of free software: security, the philosophy of free software as well as economic arguments come into play.

Free software appears to be more secure: it is possible, by consulting the source code, to verify the absence of “spy” code.

The philosophy of free, namely to share, to reuse what already exists and to work in collaboration is much more in line with the services that a government must render to its fellow citizens. Thus, rather than buying proprietary software, many governments prefer to use solutions already available for free and even, if necessary, modify them to adapt them to their own needs.

In addition, governments have a duty to manage public funds wisely.

Various national administrations are choosing to turn to free software, and Microsoft, the giant of proprietary operating systems, does not look favorably on these initiatives.

The Francophone Association of Linux and Free Software Users offers on its site references to the various official actions carried out around the world towards free software.

The following places are interested in free:

  • Latin America
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Africa
  • United States
  • Canada
  • Quebec

The Microsoft reaction to the increase in free force the US company to reconsider its position.

In Latin America

In Peru, on March 6, 2002, Dr Edgar Villanueva Nuñez, member of the Peruvian congress, presented a bill (The name of this project is: “Software: Uso Libre en Administración Pública” ie Use of free software in administration public.) which aims to make compulsory the use of free software in the public services of Peru.

The main motivations of members of Congress for this bill are not economic: it is rather the concern for transparency vis-à-vis citizens, the independence of the State vis-à-vis distributors of proprietary software, security as well as the use open data formats that justified the bill. Indeed, “the elementary principles which inspire it are linked to the fundamental guarantees of the rule of law, such as:

  • free access for citizens to public information
  • the sustainability of public information
  • state and citizen security. “

In response to this proposal, Mr. Juan Alberto González, Managing Director of Microsoft Peru, sends a letter to Mr. Villanueva which specifies the position of the American giant vis-à-vis free software, a position which is, of course, far from to be favorable !

Indeed, according to Mr. González, the bill is unconstitutional since it “is in violation of the principles of equality before the law, of non-discrimination and of the right to free private enterprise, to freedom of ‘undertake and contract, protected by the constitution’. This argument is a clear distortion of the spirit of the law since it in no way discourages private companies that develop proprietary software. On the contrary, without imposing suppliers, the law is content to describe the conditions necessary for a software to be adopted by the public administration. Companies that offer proprietary software are free to also develop a range of free, open source products at a reasonable price.

With this in mind, it can be noted that Microsoft has had to open, in part, the code of some of its applications.

In Venezuela, a policy requires on the one hand that government agencies use open source software , but also requires that all software products developed for the government be licensed under the GPL.

In Asia

The government of Taiwan is also seduced by open software to no longer depend on Microsoft. “Taiwan is not the only country to prefer free software to proprietary applications. The People’s Republic of China, the great political rival of the cousin of Taipei, is the best example of this: it has adopted the open source principle , less to reduce costs than to break a technological hegemony of American origin.

Indeed, the Chinese authorities have turned to the Red Flag Linux operating system from Red Flag Software, a Chinese company.

Japan is also a big fan of free software: the Japanese industry has also welcomed Linux, Sony even going so far as to deploy it on its PDAs.

In Europe

In June 2002, the German central government initiated a transfer of the IT park of its public administrations from Microsoft to Linux. On June 3, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, for whom “Linux is currently the best alternative to Windows”, concluded an agreement to acquire software based on the Linux kernel, distributed by the multinational IBM in partnership with the Nuremberg company SuSE Linux AG.

Recently, the city of Munich announced its choice to abandon Windows and adopt Linux within its entire administration, which represents a computer park of more than 14,000 computers.

The Norwegian government has taken a similar position in response to Microsoft’s new licensing program which takes the form of an annual financial contribution in order to be able to access updates.

In Spain, the government also wants to convert public administrations to Linux, to the detriment of Windows, but goes even further, hoping to also convince companies and individuals.

Alongside these independent initiatives, in July 2002, the European Community encouraged member states to choose open-source computer systems in public services and to pool their software resources in order to limit the costs of information technology. . The study by the Commission for Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) “Creating open software parks” evokes the notion of a “common fund” of software that would be reused.

This European initiative was well received in Great Britain, since in July 2002 the British government affirmed its desire to favor open source software within its administrations.

In Africa

South Africa is also looking at free software, without however taking a position as firm as other countries vis-à-vis proprietary software: “The working group that [the government] has mandated to study the alternatives of the open model source , made a report recommending that it opt ​​for such software when equivalent proprietary applications do not appear to be a better solution.

In the USA

Obtaining the Defense Information System Agency Common Operating Environment (COE) certification from the United States Department of Defense for Linux has encouraged the adoption of Linux by United States administrations. To continue in this direction, Oracle and Red Hat are working on the ISO certification of Linux.

Currently, the US Department of Agriculture, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Energy, US Air Force, Department of Health and Human Services, City of St. Louis as well as the one in Los Angeles uses Linux.

Likewise, Texas displays a favorable attitude towards free software. Indeed, in May 2003, Senator Carona affirmed that by using free software it was possible to reduce the costs borne by the administration while improving services to citizens.

When it comes to Linux adoption in US administrations, the City of Garden Grove is a very good example.

In Canada

The Canadian government is leading various initiatives in favor of open-source software. For example, in May 2002 Public Works and Government Services Canada organized Open Source Software Solutions Expo Week.

Likewise, Public Works and Government Services Canada, through its software acquisition reference center, takes the initiative of offering information sessions to inform Government of Canada managers on topics of interest. for the IT community. It is also specified that one of the two topical subjects for spring 2003 is open source software. Moreover, during the meetings of May 12 to 16, 2003 presentations on this subject took place.

At an Ottawa Linux User Group meeting in October 2002, Joseph Potvin offered a talk titled Economics of the Open Source Business Model , which discussed factors to consider when a government organization commits to a model. open source development.

Finally, the GOSLING community (Getting Open Source Logic Into Governments), of which Joseph Potvin is a part, takes to heart the changes that could take place within the Canadian government since it defends the idea that the government uses more free software, and some of its members go so far as to wish for a commitment from the government to use only free software.

In a philosophy similar to that of the open source world , the Canadian government, again through Public Works and Government Services Canada, has a structure called Knowledge Exchange Service (KES) whose objective is to share software, knowledge, best practices in order to work more efficiently and facilitate the reuse of software within the government apparatus.

In Quebec

The Quebec government is particularly interested in the world of free software. As such, the Information Highway and Documentary Information Directorate of the MRCI (Ministry of Citizen Relations and Immigration) has set up a community resource, The Free Software Community in order to inform IT specialists within the Quebec government. This community focuses more particularly on free software in the world of the Web without however losing sight of the various initiatives taking place around the world within governments.

Another sign of the Government of Quebec’s interest in free software: on July 9, 2003 , the Minister of Education Pierre Reid mentioned in the chamber that:

“In a way, free software is software which can replace certain commercial software at much lower costs and which allows adaptation in Quebec”

In addition, the MRCI Webmasters newsletter often deals with open source software. One can in particular consult the article “ The free software movement in full effervescence ” of the bulletin of October 28, 2002 as well as “ Are you free tonight? ” dated May 27, 2002.

Quebec is also talking about establishing government guidelines with regard to free software. Indeed, the Architecture and Infrastructure Directorate (DAI) of the Under-Secretariat for Government Information Highway and Information Resources of the Treasury Board Secretariat is currently making an assessment of the situation in the free software world.

In addition, in reaction to the adoption of Linux by the City of Munich, Sylvain Carle, member of the Linux Quebec organizing committee, spoke in favor of the adoption of free software by the Quebec authorities:

“It would be interesting to see the Quebec authorities examine more closely the possibilities offered by free software. It is important not to take into consideration a possible migration to Linux based solely on economic reasons. Yes, Linux and free software are free, but there is a cost associated with implementing software, whether proprietary or open source.. However, adopting free software is also a way of ensuring that the use of its data is not subject to the obligation to use the software packages of a single company. It is never good for a company or a government to be tied hand and foot in the face of the business dictates of a software company. Historically, free software has chosen to adopt open standards. For example, the OpenOffice office suite saves its files in the XML standard. If by chance, in the future, the organization which adopted OpenOffice decides to migrate to another office automation suite, it at least has the assurance of knowing that its data can be read without any problem by another similar product. “

In Quebec, several initiatives aim to adopt free software in the field of education. The LinuxÉdu-Québec site , supported by educators involved in free software, identifies a large number of concrete projects experienced in certain Quebec schools using free software and initiatives. Among these projects, let us highlight:

  • Cyberfolio : a multimedia portfolio project on the Internet. It is intended for use in an educational framework and integrates the components of educational reform in Quebec.
  • Jobinote [ 28 ]: this software allows you to take notes online during meetings while having an efficient search tool to find a term in texts.
  • FORTIC : developed by a team from the school boards (CS) of Laval, Affluents and Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles, this project allows the registration and online management of teacher training.
  • Virtual servers ( Vservers ): used, among others, at the CS des Affluents to manage the Linux Web servers of schools.
  • SPIP schools [ 29 ]: A growing community of users is using the SPIP online publication system . In addition to advice from LinuxÉdu-Québec, those interested can consult and learn from the SPIP-edu site .
  • Samba: allows access to file spaces in a free software environment [ 30 ]. This solution makes it possible to manage tens of thousands of student accounts. It is also used in more and more CS to replace proprietary file servers Novell or Microsoft.

Microsoft’s reaction

In reaction to these government initiatives to promote free software to the detriment of proprietary software, Microsoft was forced to reconsider its positions. Thus, in January 2003, the American firm agreed to partially open the Windows code (Windows 2000 / XP / Server 2003 and CE), to several governments and international organizations, in order to counter the rise of Linux.

This opening is made within the framework of the GSP agreement , Government Security Program. According to Microsoft, “the” GSP “will allow governments to study its source code with a view to improving the security of the software they use, in particular for the surveillance of personal data, in the tax field or to guarantee the national security ”.

GSP offers this access to sixty countries, while countries under embargo by the United States are automatically excluded. As for governments of other countries wishing to access the program, they will have to address a request to the local Microsoft subsidiary.

Russia, Great Britain and NATO have already agreed to participate in the GSP program, as has Japan, where the process “is simple, since the applicant only needs to sign a license agreement with Microsoft in order to leave with the company. ‘access to sources’.

Thanks to the GSP, Microsoft even hopes to seduce China and impose Windows against Red Flag Linux.

Moreover, Microsoft does not just open its code to convince governments. Indeed, in April 2003, to counter the agreement between Germany and IBM-SuSE, Microsoft proposed to the German administration to adjust the price of its licenses.

At the same time, Microsoft also announced the end of support for Windows 95 and Windows 98, thus hoping to convince companies to update their computer fleets and boost sales of Windows XP.