OzHub, the Macquarie Telecom-led cloud computing alliance, has come down firmly on the side of Optus over the copyright controversy surrounding Optus TV Now, warning that any moves to change the law "risk branding Australia a global luddite state."
Andrew McMillan, one of the founders of New Zealand's biggest open source IT firm, Catalyst, from which he retired last year, said: "I think that this result is really a reflection of the times, as the incoming government looks for ways to reduce bureaucracy and pare back the government spending which has grown somewhat during Labour's period in the hot seat... (and also due to) current economic conditions.
"My guess is that not signing the deal means that these software costs will now become more significant and more frequent operational decisions in the day to day of each individual government department.
"Obviously it's good news for the alternatives, and I expect that Microsoft will ramp up their sales and marketing in the government sector, but in reality the effects will be subtle in the short term.
"One likely effect is that this will increase Microsoft's profits for at least the coming year, while they reap benefits of fee increases, but in the longer term it certainly levels the playing field, giving greater attention to the alternatives."
McMillan, who is also a senior Debian developer, added: "I do think that the non-deal certainly does indicate a thorough awareness within the State Services Commission, and within the government sector in general, that there are now realistic alternatives available."
Zane Gilmore, development and web infrastructure team leader for the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, said his understanding of the affair was that the SSC (State Services Commission) tried to get their usual agreement and was knocked back by Microsoft.
"Microsoft claims that that was their plan all along so that they can form relationships with the bureaucrats. SSC claims that they were just trying to do more of the same," said the pony-tailed Gilmore.
"With some luck we can use this as leverage to get more open source software into government but I can't see Microsoft allowing that for long. The agreement allowed for cheap or free use of Microsoft software for government organisations. It made it very difficult for OSS vendors to have any look-in as they could use Microsoft Office etc free.
Gimore said the schools used MS Office free and as a result school children gained familiarity with only Microsoft software. Teachers could just say, 'we get MS Office free so why should we use Open Office?'
"I can't imagine that Microsoft will allow schools to start using anything else for long but we may get a temporary toe in the door," he added. "Hopefully it will make CIOs (or their equivalents) think before they just automatically use Microsoft software but I'm not holding my breath."
The New Zealand government move comes a few weeks after a leading British academic questioned the way in which the Gates Foundation allocates money to various causes.
Dr David McCoy who is with the Centre for International Health and Development at University College London, rasied several questions about the fund's level of accountability and transparency.
David Frost
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