Re: [Freesw] Procurement and free / open source software (fwd)

[Claus Soerensen <sslug@sslug>]

Lidt fra Tyskland men oversat til engelsk.

De herligste hilsner
-- 
Claus Sørensen        Electromagnetic Systems    Phone:  +45 45 88 14 44
Systemadministrator        Ørsted * DTU          Fax:    +45 45 93 16 34
sslug@sslug        Ørsted Plads 348        Web:     www.emi.dtu.dk
+45 45 25 38 44       DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark    sslug@sslug

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 11 Feb 2002 17:32:01 +0100
From: Alastair Burt <sslug@sslug>
Reply-To: sslug@sslug
To: sslug@sslug
Subject: Re: [Freesw] Procurement and free / open source software

sslug@sslug writes:

> A contribution from Sweden to this debate
>
> http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/02/08/208246

Here is some more news on that front from Germany (in German):

  http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/odi-22.01.02-001/

It says (freely translated by yours truly):

  The Audit Office in Bavaria Would Like to See More Open Source Softwasre

  The Audit Office of Bavaria (Bayerische Oberste Rechnungshof - ORH), in
  its yearly report, calls for more use of open source software in the
  administration and speaks clearly against the procurement of Microsoft
  software. In a chapter devoted to the topic of "The Use of Open Source
  Software", the ORH warns against "severe dependence on the product policy
  of a single producer and the risks associated with this (in terms of
  costs and security)" and estimates the costs of the Microsoft's new
  licensing scheme alone to be up to EUR 18 million. At the same time the
  auditors warn of further dependency which the new license conditions will
  impose.

  Just on cost savings aoine, ORH recommends the use of open source
  software instead of Microsoft products. On the server side, the
  administration has already experienced good results from open source
  software; it was also found to need less personnel than Microsoft
  products. On the desktops of the administration, 90 per cent of which are
  currently running Microsoft software, it does not yet have so much
  experience, but the audit office sees the possibility for considerable
  savings here as well and recommends pilot projects to verify this. With
  reference to this point, the auditors critise the fact that the current
  standards in the Bavarian administration in the areas of office
  communication and exchange of data on the client side are based solely on
  Microsoft products. The ORH therefore recommends that only
  producer-independent, standard formats be used.

  The current efforts to introduce a directory service on the basis of
  Microsoft's Active Directory is not viewed very favourably by the
  auditors: this will just "increase the dependency on a single
  producer". In addition, one can expect that, due to the new
  licensing scheme of Microsoft and the forced need to keep upgrading, the
  costs will increase considerably. Here too, the ORH sees the potential
  for savings through the use of open source software, since the upgrade
  cycle is typically longer and based more directly the needs of the user.

--- Alastair

---
----
Alastair Burt
German Centre for AI (DFKI), Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3
Saarbrücken 66123, Germany
Email: sslug@sslug
Tel: +49 681 302 2565
Fax: +49 681 302 2235

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