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European Commission Will Increase Use of Open Source Software

Posted by Soulskill on from the leading-by-example dept.

jrepin writes: The European Commission has updated its strategy for internal use of Open Source Software. The Commission, which is already using open source for many of its key ICT services and software solutions, will further increase the role of this type of software internally. The renewed strategy puts a special emphasis on procurement, contribution to open source software projects, and providing more of the software developed within the Commission as open source.

22 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. All good... by DamonHD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but I wish it wasn't news!

    Rgds

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
    1. Re:All good... by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Nobody wanted to get off the 'support contract' gravy train.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Software commodity by dimeglio · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great to see they will also contribute to open source software. Software is no longer the arcane art it used to be. Almost anyone with some basic skills can contribute in some way. It's not all about coding.

    --
    Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
    1. Re:Software commodity by gmack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When you are the size of the EC, hiring a few developers to add any needed features becomes cheaper than the software licenses for the proprietary competition.

    2. Re:Software commodity by MPBoulton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hit the nail on the head!

      This also avoids the ridiculous situation we have in the UK where many government departments are wasting money paying MS to provide support for XP so that they can go on using their crappy-lowest-bidder-software-that-no-one-understands-how-to-update. Instead a few quality developers can do a better job of ensuring EC staff use modern, more secure systems.

    3. Re:Software commodity by slashmydots · · Score: 1

      But then you have a support your alterations in every future update, all of which could break them. It's easier to pay the original group to add the feature you need to the main release.

    4. Re:Software commodity by gmack · · Score: 1

      Or you could submit the changes and have them merged into the project.

    5. Re:Software commodity by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Because the registry change does not fully secure getting all security updates, they may get some. I further think that a government as anyone else should think twice before employing a hack that essentially steals services.

  3. Alarming trend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    As the quality and use of OSS increases, there will be less and less demand for commercial products. This could very well result in decreased demand and lower pay for software developers. More and more of them will contribute to OSS as resume padding, creating a negative feedback loop that makes the offshoring / H1B crisis we're currently involved in seem like a picnic. Any type of really disruptive technology on top of that - self coding apps, or OSS that allows even MBA's to create reasonably good quality apps, or businesses and governments to 'roll their own' with only 1 or 2 people - could collapse the market for coders. At this point I think skill in niche languages / industries is a safer bet than more general skills.

    1. Re:Alarming trend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Do you know how many times I've been paid to integrate open source software solutions together? Your theory is flat out wrong.

    2. Re:Alarming trend. by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 2

      On the contrary, not all OSS software is immediately useful to the task at hand. Someone has to install it, maintain it, and eventually rewrite it or add to it in order that it fulfils government requirements.

      This is what you do in industry, it won't be much different. Perhaps there won't be any more cubical farms of coders (thank God), but there will be work for small teams all the time to add a feature or provide a patch.

      What is even better is that they will be government jobs, which are about as secure as you can get. If I could get a government job coding, I would be a very happy person.

    3. Re:Alarming trend. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't believe I have ever read a more idiotic analysis on the use of OSS software or the market dynamics involved with software development in general. First off OSS projects may become more common but the vast majority of the existing projects are just as, if not, vastly more buggy, riddled with half baked functionality, and insecure than anything you will find in the commercial market. OSS growth will only increase the demand for developers not reduce it. Businesses and governments already "roll their own" by either hiring or contracting developers. Damn near every company of note on the planet has some piece of internally developed software that is unique to their organization and this will most likely never change and there will continue to be a demand for developers to provide maintenance, upgrades, and future functionality to this software. And if you think the H1B Visa program is making it harder for you to get a job then you must not be very good at what you do. As a matter of fact if you cannot find a software developer job you are either not looking hard enough, have set your salary or location requirements to high, or you lack the skill set needed today. But it is in your power to change every one of the things that may be preventing you from gaining employment as a software developer.

  4. Re:an invitable drawback by Pi1grim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This fortunately means that there will be a large political body interested in not allowing NSA to get their hooks into OSS.

  5. Mostly for servers, though. by MtViewGuy · · Score: 2

    And with good reason: Linux has enjoyed its biggest success in the server market, especially after IBM successfully ported Linux to run in IBM mainframes. Indeed, many of the most trafficked web sites around the run on servers that use Linux.

  6. Re:OSS. You're free not to use it? by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 1

    Brilliant summary of European history from 800 to present day, all in one sentence!

  7. They aren't saying what you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I work for a company that works on research projects funded by DG connect. We don't do any actual work, we do "calls for tender". Basically, we dream up stuff that contains some recent IT buzzwords and throw it at the commission. If they express interest, we slap together a consortium of development companies that specialize in delivering these"research projects". The consortium always has to be predominantly southern European (preferably Greek) plus one German company (preferably Fraunhofer) to do the actual work. It's basically welfare for Southern Europe.

    What really kills me is that every project is supposed to be " open source" in order to get funding. But the commission does not use the OSI definition of open source. They mean something else entirely. They mean that the tool has to be publically available... Ie, if you build a web service, you have to make it available as an "open source" of data instead of charging for access... But only for the duration of the project (usually around 3 years). You can release your code in any way you like, or not at all. The commission doesn't care.

    When they say they are going to invest in open source, this is what they mean. They are funding companies to launch free-to-use stuff in the hope that somebody will build the next Google in Europe. The open source moniker is just to keep the WTO out.

    1. Re:They aren't saying what you think by turbidostato · · Score: 1

      "They mean that the tool has to be publically available... Ie, if you build a web service, you have to make it available as an "open source" of data instead of charging for access... But only for the duration of the project (usually around 3 years). You can release your code in any way you like, or not at all. The commission doesn't care.

      When they say they are going to invest in open source, this is what they mean."

      Citation needed.

  8. Re:an invitable drawback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Holy Shit! No one in the FOSS community has ever thought about this before!!! There are not 500 articles describing exactly this and the variety of reasons why this is not NOT theoretically but NOT realistically possible! [/s]

    https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/the-linux-backdoor-attempt-of-2003/

    Seriously, keep your fear-mongering to yourself. Especially if it's unfounded.

  9. Re:an invitable drawback by Norsys · · Score: 1

    Its about time they use OSS!! I believe that various licensing is best for different types of software. I think people will understand when to use witch.

    --
    http://alamar.webege.com
  10. Re:an invitable drawback by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    It means....there will be a large political body interested in using the NSA hooks in OSS (assuming they really have them, which is a big if).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. Good by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    I believe this is the first time I consider an European Commission move on something to be positive.

  12. Re:an invitable drawback by turbidostato · · Score: 1

    "Then we need much better auditing, because the open source development process means that any random dude can offer patches."

    OMG!

    Quick, stop the presses!

    As if a random dude offering a patch and a team accepting a patch were the same thing.