Hungarian open source service providers are anxious to see the details of the government's request for open source that it announced last week. "How is the government going to procure software that usually is available for free?"
The senior state secretary for Informatics and Government Commissioner Ferenc Baja announced last Thursday that the Hungarian government is going to increase its use of open source software. He said the government will make 12 billion HUF (close to 41 million euro) available for open source. The tender will be published in a few weeks' time.
The announcement comes a few months after the government's sudden withdrawal of a request for 25 billion HUF (about 100 million euro) for Microsoft and Novell software. Instead, the government will publish a new tender, cutting its budget in half and using the other half for open source.
The announcement surprised Hungarian open source companies, and left them wanting for more details. "We are not puzzled, we are confused', said one representative of a group of open source companies, who declined to be named. The companies expect the government will want to make a list of preferred open source service providers.
In a statement, Gábor Szentiványi, CEO of ULX, an open source solution provider, welcomed the announcement. "For the first time open source solutions get equal status as proprietary vendors in centralised public sector tenders. This was long overdue."
Gábor Bódi, State Secretary for ICT & e-Government, said it is likely that public institutions are not immediately able to make use of the budget for open source. "It is also possible they will make more use of it than we would expect."
Baja also announced the government will re-open a Software Competence Centre, to help public bodies with the migration to open source IT. The centre was shut down in 2005 after having operated for one year.
The office of Government Commissioner Ferenc did not yet respond to questions.
Hungary's Competition Office took the government to court over a four-year framework tender published in early 2008, which requested specific software brands. The Competition Office claims the tender violates Hungary's regulations, that forbid referring to actual brands. The Metropolitan Court dismissed the case in September, but the competition authority is appealing that decision.
More information:
Index HU news item (in Hungarian)
Computerworld news item (in Hungarian)