Open Source computing has a closer fit to public services than does proprietary IT, says Patrick Harvie, a Green Party representative in the Scottish Parliament.
"It is difficult to persuade health services and other public services to use Open Source. It may or may not be cheaper, if you factor in the costs of running and maintaining it. But it actually is better. It is better functionally and politically. It fits better with their attitude to public service and the way the public sector should be run for the public good."
Harvie spoke at a Open Source conference in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 June. The meeting was organised by programmers working on KDE, a collection of Open Source desktop applications.
The Scottish MP believes public services could maximise their public benefits if they would use open source software or if they would Open Source the software that is custom made for them. "It is a crying shame that the public sector instinctively keeps spending large amounts of taxpayers' money on designing (proprietary) software. The maximum benefit for the public good would mean maximum use of that software."
The MP described how he was contacted by a Microsoft official within days of submitting his first questions about the cost of Microsoft in the Scottish government. He says the company has vasts amounts of money to "persuade people like me that they are just doing their jobs and that they really are open and progressive. They are not."
Most people only know about Windows, worries the MP. "We are teaching our children that a computer is a machine that runs Windows." He called the development of Open Source alternatives the result of a political movement, grown from a decision to create tools for all to use and share. The work of Open Source developers, Harvie concluded, not only creates better and free software. "It also shows how to make societies that are freer."
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KDE article on (English)