Microsoft Partnership Vexes Open Source Fans

[george]

Microsoft partnership vexes open source fans

BANGKOK: -- Partnerships between the government and Microsoft announced on Thursday upon the visit of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates are worrying the open source community which wants to promote alternative open standard software.

According to the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) director Thaweesak Koanantakool, building a standard for e-government is a good thing to do, but in his view the standard should be based on open standard, which allows others to see the source code.

Mr Gates announced a 180-million-baht (US$4.5 million) investment over the next three years to promote web services via the Thailand.net project, Partners in Learning, for teaching ICT to schools nationwide and support for e-government.

"I am worried the e-government standard will not be based on open source," Dr Thaweesak said. Mr Gates saw Thailand as a potential web service hub for the region, which was a good thing. However, web services should also be based on the open source standard.

"Open source should still be an alternative," Dr Thaweesak said.

Thailand Open Source Federation (ATOSF) president Seree Chinodom said Microsoft's support will not have a big impact on the open source industry because it's only temporary.

"We expect the government will continue to support the open source community as a means to promote the use of legal software." An open source policy would encourage new software development which meant Thais could develop their own software or even become a seller, not always a buyer.

According to Software Park Thailand, in 2002 Thailand imported software worth 18 billion baht, which accounted for 70% of the total value of software in the country. One way to reduce imports was to encourage local developers, and support and promote the open source sector.

However, the penetration of open source software is still low. A joint survery by the Thai ICT Industry (ATCI) and the Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI) showed the amount of open source software used by large organisations was only 20-30% of the total. For PCs it represents just 1% of the market.

However, Windows is an important operating system which will continue to be used for a long time, said Sipa's open source development manager James Clark.

"The support is good but the government also needs to be cautious. We should have an alternative or otherwise it will not be healthy for the country," he said.

--TNA 2005-07-02

[awarrumbungle]

They should follow in Brazil's footsteps. Say no to Gates use linuz and open source software exclusively. Save em a bunch of baht.

Or just use Macs, they work!