Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:00
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Reaction from the country's IT sector has been, predictably, upbeat.
Don Christie, president of the New Zealand Open Source Society, said in a radio interview, that even though the idea of a whole of government deal was to obtain big discounts, the bulk discount for the 2006 deal had probably amounted to about $NZ3 million a year, small change in the context of the total amount, which probably ran to hundreds of millions.
He said the deal was commercial-in-confidence and that exact figures could not be known.
Christie said the government had had no option but to back out from a deal this time because it was offered the same recommended, retail price as any other customer, despite the volume of licences it would buy.
He said replacements would now have to be sought and it would be a long, hard haul as the Government had got used to the Microsoft applications.
"Essentially, Microsoft software is like a virus; once it's in your system it's very difficult to get rid of it," Christie said.
David Lane, director of egressive, a company dealing in open source, said: "I'm excited about the possibility that free/open source solutions are no longer excluded from government procurement... That and the increasing grassroots understanding of FOSS within business and government is causing a subtle but profound shift in the mindset throughout NZ. Microsoft is now seen as the frivolously expensive 'closed' choice, which it is.
"Now it's just up to the FOSS vendors in NZ to seize the opportunity and rise to the challenge of filling the gaps as they form. Rest assured that we will!"
He said it would not be long before the NZ Ministry of Education tie-in with Microsoft received similar scrutiny. "The latest agreement is being negotiated now, with results announced in a month - that agreement reportedly covers twice as many licenses as the G2009 agreement would have had."
"When we demonstrate the ability for Kiwi FOSS vendors to make the grade, I don't think Microsoft will have much of a future in pan-industry/government agreements here in NZ (or anywhere else, given NZ's bellwether status for this sort of thing). The first domino has fallen."
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