Another Government Organization Pushing Open Source
November 11th, 2004 by Adam Cuothe
Sean Gallagher at eWeek says
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced Wednesday that the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has selected its Java Desktop System to be part of a ministry initiative to promote the use of open-source desktops in educational institutions. The initiative is part of METI’s efforts to stimulate the growth of an open-source community within Japan and competitive alternatives to Microsoft Corp. on the desktop.
Why are so many governments trying to push open source? Hong Kong, Germany, India, California, China, the list goes on, every day there is an announcement about a government deciding to migrate to open source Microsoft alternatives. A better question is when will this cease to be newsworthy? I know I know, I’m contributing to it all by writing this little screed, but I’m asking about the end. See I think it’s rather obvious that a government would push open source. Open source is by nature a public activity and governments are by nature publ… no wait, they’re controlled by, who? By corporate interests? Well it looks to me like some of those interests, particularly the local ones, could get a little kick from greater freedom in the logic industry. I mean to say that software and its little intricacies (like can you use it to record new forms of media without asking the US media moguls permission? Like can you do a major set of upgrades on your corporate PCs without having to reinstall Microsoft’s little joys all over again? Do you really have any control over anything you’ve paid for?) is dictated by the Redmond dicks and that ultimately isn’t a very secure path to future success for many of the world’s local logic laborers. If a government gets open source into the schools they raise a generation guaranteeing the future likelihood that their businesses, public interests, and security is in their own hands. Rising sun and setting sun–so happy together.
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