Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 19:24:57 +0200
From: Ulf Larsen <help@wolflarsen.com>
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Norwegian State Consulting coordinating agency recommends use of Linux

Hi

Thought you might be interested in hearing that "Statkonsult" 

http://www.statskonsult.no/

- which is a directorate responsible for overall efficiency within state
and public organizations - their mission statement below:

http://www.statskonsult.no/english/thisis.htm

-have published a study regarding the use of Linux with the public
sector in Norway.

The press statement with a link to the report (which is in .pdf and in
Norwegian) can be found here:

http://www.statskonsult.no/aktuelt/presse/p20010329.htm

Briefly - it says that the report were to answer the question of whether
Linux and open source could be used within the public sector.

The reason for Statkonsult to investigate into Linux and open source
were the belief that it:

- Could reduce the level of which the public sector were dependent on
one and/or a few providers of software
- Could reduce the costs when software were acquired

Even though Linux is suitable as a server OS we believe that apps for
end users still don't offer the same level of functions and
possibilities of integration as commercial closed source programs does,
mr. Endre Grøtnes - senior consultant in Statkonsult said.

He did say that Linux and other open source software have a great future
in areas as infrastructure development, development of standards and in
education. The use of open source will be best suited for areas where
costs are primarily connected to licenses and the costs of retraining
users are minor.

The report says that open source is a vital part of the development of
the Internet infrastructure. 

Some of the main recommendations from the report is:

-The state should encourage schools and universities to use Linux and
open source. The reason for this being that students should have access
to various software environments so at a later stage they are in a
better position to select software.
-The state should support development of open source software so there
will be alternatives to commercial "closed source" software. New open
source software can create a pressure for further development of
commercial software and can prevent a situation with a reliance on just
one or a few software packages. Support could be given through research
and development programs. Awarding research and development contracts
could be made dependent on that the resulting software should be
licensed as open source.
-The state should investigate whether it can publish source code it
already owns as open source software.
-To save licenses used PC's donated to schools could be given away with
open source software installed.

The report have created  quite a bit of interest - with the main
national newspaper VG (a circulation of some 400.000 paper copies pr.
day) have given it prominent space on it's web version:

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=940721

Hope you find it of some interest.

Best regards - Ulf Larsen - Oslo, Norway
http://www.wolflarsen.com/eng/