[LINK] Alston opens agencies to Linux

[Carl Makin]

Don't think I've seen this yet...

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5421656%255E15306,00.html


Alston opens agencies to Linux
 Caitlin Fitzsimmons
 November 05, 2002
  

THE Federal Government has given its blessing to Commonwealth
departments and agencies to investigate and adopt open-source software.

 IT Minister Richard Alston said he was impressed with the cost savings
open source had to offer. 

The Department of Veterans' Affairs, Centrelink and the Bureau of
Meteorology recently made separate decisions to move part of their IT
infrastructure to the Linux operating system, an open source Unix
derivative. 

Senator Alston said the Bureau of Meteorology, which adopted Linux on
one of its development clusters, had achieved a 30 per cent reduction in
both hardware and software expenditure. 

"We think it's got potential, but it's not a matter where we would
advocate a particular approach, proprietary or otherwise," Senator
Alston said. 

 "There is an ever-increasing enthusiasm for open source around the
world. 

"We would encourage our departments and agencies to adopt best practice
and since three of them have gone down that path with positive results,
we would encourage them all to look at open source." 

John Rimmer, chief executive of the National Office for the Information
Economy (NOIE), said government agencies made software decisions on a
case-by-case basis based on value for money, fit-for-purpose
functionality and reliability. 

The endorsement for open source comes as the Government prepares to
launch the second phase of its e-government strategy. 

The first stage from 1997 to 2001 focused on bringing appropriate
agencies and government services online. 

Next week is earmarked as E-Government Week. 

Various agencies will demonstrate their online capability at Parliament
House in Canberra. 

The Australian