Other governments have made the move towards open source technology


A recent government report advises Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sue Payton to adopt open source technology for software. The report was written by major technology companies, the Open Source Software Institute and consultants for the Advanced Systems & Concepts. The 79-page Open Technology Development road map mentions the adoption of open source technologies, adherence to open standards, and licensing and software governance for the Department of Defense. Programming code and standards used by the DoD should also be shared with the open source community.

The incentive to switch to open source is there: According to the Government's Accountability Office's annual Assessments of Selected Major Weapon Programs, the DoD will spend almost $14 billion on software in 2006. Even if changes are implemented some issues stand in the way. The Arstechnica article mentions how legacy proprietary systems will need to be modified so that they are able to work alongside newer systems.

Local, state and federal governments in Europe and South America have slowly moved towards adapting open source technologies, because of extremely high software license fees. Open source can be “a real alternative for e-governments,” according to some reports.

Sue Payton is responsible for all United States Air Force research, development and non-space acquisition activities for the Air Force.

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