By Charles Moreira
Monday, August 12 2002 10:37 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,39071821,00.htm

SERI KEMBANGAN, Malaysia--The government has been committed to using open-source software (OSS) since November last year, and the decision came from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad himself.

According to Leo Moggie, Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister, the Prime Minister said at a “closed-door” meeting then that the government would implement OSS in its departments and agencies.

“The government decided to begin OSS implementation in agencies like the Treasury, while other ministries have begun implementing OSS on their servers,” he told reporters at the National Open Source Conference and Exhibition (NOSCE) 2002 here last week.

Such OSS implementation would later move to desktops, currently dominated by Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

OSS ranges from operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD, to webserver software like Apache and application suites like OpenOffice.org.

The government does not want to be tied to any proprietary software and operating system. OSS is much cheaper, with some available for free, while proprietary software can make up about 40 percent of the total cost of a personal computer.

However, Moggie cautioned that the Government wanted to ensure a smooth transition to OSS, with minimum disruption to operations.

“Thus, it makes more sense to first implement OSS on the servers and then move outwards to the desktops,” said Moggie.

“Moreover, it’s easier for young people learning to use computers for the first time to begin by using OSS, rather than having experienced users of proprietary software to migrate to using OSS,” he said.

Officials from the Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) in the Prime Minister’s Department said in an interview earlier this year that the government would also have to look at contracts various government bodies have already signed for the purchase of proprietary software.

Mampu oversees and gives final approval for most public sector computerization projects.

Reaching an apex
According to sources, the Prime Minister had met OSS experts over the last few months to get their views. Spurred by these discussions with Mahathir, Malaysia’s OSS momentum has been building up since early this year.

Late last year, about the same time Mahathir announced his intention at the closed-door meeting cited by Moggie, the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom) formed an open source special interest group.

Pikom, with almost 400 member companies, represents the information technology industry in most issues.

In April, its special interest group submitted a white paper to Moggie’s ministry. The paper included strong recommendations for the public sector to opt for OSS to lower the total cost of ownership in its technology deployment, and for the government to come out with a policy pursuant to this.

The white paper also suggested that Malaysia “officially embrace OSS.”

In January, the Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC) also formed an open source special interest group.

Finally, last month, Mahathir launched the Komnas (Komputer Nasional) Twenty20 personal computer, developed by DRB-Hicom Info Tech and built on OSS.