News UK says Linux is OK for .gov

The penguins are coming out of the cold according to the OGC, and for once they don't mean the choccie biccies the civil servants munch on during tea breaks. This from El Reg:

Open Source Software is now a viable and credible alternative for government, says a report published yesterday by the UK's Office of Government Commerce. The report, detailing the verdict on a series of proof of concept trials of OSS, which were carried out in conjunction with Sun and IBM over the past year, notes that the three main areas of implementation are at different stages of maturity, but notes that cost savings can be achieved, and signposts OSS' attractiveness as a possible escape route from vendor lock-in.

The OGC is not by a long chalk evangelising open source. On the contrary, throughout the document it maintains a measured and balanced tone, addressing the issue of whether it's feasible to consider OSS against proprietary systems in national and local government procurement, and if so, what kinds of roles represent the 'low-hanging fruit' where OSS can be deployed most cost-effectively. So the OGC is not saying that UK government should switch to open source as a matter of policy, it is saying that in many areas OSS can be better, and more cost-effective, than proprietary solutions. Ironically, one pilot study where proprietary lock-in proved such an insuperable problem that the pilot had to abandoned took place at, er, the OGC's executive agency, OGC Buying Solutions. Proprietary lock-in also seems to have been rather more of an issue when it came to communicating with central government systems than it was elsewhere, so Whitehall clearly has some distance to go before it can walk the talk.

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