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Croatia Adopts Open Source Policy
lisah writes "Croatia says that concerns over the expense and limitations of proprietary software led to last month's decision to adopt a free and open source software policy within Croatia's government. Officials say the move will make the government's work more transparent as well as help to better manage its operating costs. Taking it a step further, under the new policy the government will also support the use of open source in schools, saying, 'both closed and open source solutions will be equally presented to students.' Vlatko Kosturjak, president of the Croatian Linux User Group, is unmoved. Citing the practical and technical difficulties of embracing open source on such a broad scale, he says until the policy is actually implemented, '[it] is just like an unsent letter.'"
...Beautiful place, Croatia, and some smart people from the area. Think Nikola Tesla (a real border-spanner) and all those lovely cool rivers for Penguins to swim in.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
The governments' mum confirmed it has lost its job and is moving back into the basement.
liqbase
Vlatko Kosturjak, president of the Croatian Linux User Group, is unmoved. Citing the practical and technical difficulties of embracing open source on such a broad scale
You sure this guy isn't the president of the Croatian Microsoft User Group?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Correction: We can't verify that some foreign government or corporation isn't spying on us if we use closed-source software. Also we can't translate the software into croatian ourselves, but have to wait for the vendor to do it.
In a month Microsoft will be offering them a fantastic licensing deal and like other countries that "decided" to use open source, they'll likely change their course.
I think government all around the world should adopt similar policies.
1. Governamental software is usualy specialized, so they had to pay for the whole development. Now they can build uppon OSS saving money.
2. The development will probably be made by locals. Creating more programmers there, and more business based on OSS (support, custom development, etc).
3. They will have full control of what there softwares do. No more hidden calls home by proprietary software.
4. Security will probably be better: security by secret is the worst kind.
My only question is... Why only there? Why don't other nations use similar policies? Why they keep buying from foreign companies instead of using OSS?
Ah, Croatia, one of the best kept secrets. The blonde, blue-eyed women are among the tallest in the world. Nude beaches on the Adriatic Sea. Almost everyone speaks English as a second language (knowing Croatian of course will get you further, but you can pick that up over time). Everything is cheap. And now, open source.
They are in debt and are spending to much. They don't have any money. They spend 19 billion and only bring in 17 billion. The Republic of Croatia is looking to cut expenses. Though, it should be easier to cut 2 billion in expenses compared to 200 billion USA needs to cut.
And in case if any slashdotters wants to move there.
Croatia has GDP of $35 billion and $11,000 per capita. Unemployment is 18% compared to USA's 4.6%. Croatia is also mostly Catholic with only 1.3% is muslim as of 2001.
If you want to congratulate the government. You can contact them through Ambassador Neven JURICA at 2343 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. Phone is 202-588-5899
More information available at your local CIA office.
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Hi all! As a Croat I just had to post something to clarify... Croatia is a young country, and therefore we had to build our IT program infrastructure from close to nothing, meaning not many legacy problems. Being a small country (for a great holiday:) ), changes to this type of things is easier that applying the same to the US - imagine having to teach all the employees new tricks or worse new programs. Croatia has had a very long tradition of unix, and later linux usage. Our academic network http://www.carnet.hr/ is a long time promoter of OSS. All universities in Croatia run a Debian distro modified to suit every need of the students, teachers,... And new trends are constantly implemented. The same program is offered to secondary schools (and in a small extent to primary schools). Croatia has created an office for implementing new technologies called eHrvatska http://www.e-hrvatska.hr/ and they have been working on it for some 2-3 years now. At first there was no sign of actitity from them, but in the last year they brought to the public a series of interesting services nationwide (eVAT, eLearning, e), digitizing courts, land-ownership books,... Croatia was one of the first countries to include Digital signature into its legislation, opening the way for eBusiness and eGovernment. Even The head of Croatian Linux User Community is sceptical because Croatia has a deal with Microsoft for supplying MS software for all government needs, but it has become clear the money just leaves the country without any intent to come back. Making a WinXP and Office localization was a nice gesture, but nothing more. We have smart people, good programmers with great ideas making software for foreign countries. Why not earn some money at home by making software for home... I personally don't care if the move is made because of money issues, creating a software demand will mean jobs for programmers, and better service for citizens.
What's going on with the lame, unenthusiastic response by that Vlatko Kosturjak guy, president of the Croatian Linux User Group ?
Yeah, I can imagine it might be difficult to do the transition on a large setting. So ???? Difficult doesn't mean hopeless, but that's sure how his response was. Shouldn't he be rolling up his sleeves and maybe offer resources, instead of just sitting back and making unhelpful, aloof statements like that ?
Maybe he has had bad experiences with his govt's hot air statements. Who knows ? However, you can't win *anything* with a bad attitude like that. If that's the sort of "look down", "prove it to me" attitude of the friggin' *President* of the Linux User Group, I would run 100 miles the other way. A new adopter, even if it's the government, is not supposed to be made feel that they have to *prove* anything. If anything it should be Vlatko and his cohorts making clear that they are ready to *serve* and help any new adopters. But again, I don't have enough context to know what's going on there. I think that whole *serving* concept is completely over Vlatko's head. I wouldn't be surprised if a private corporation with inferior product but better attitude gets in there, then.