Open Source Software Usage High in Australian Government

The Australian Government Information Office (AGIMO) just demonstrated that the government is using plenty of open source software (OSS).

The office discovered, by means of the Financial Management and Accountability Act, that 60 government agencies were using 750 different implementations of 200 open source software packages. This was concluded after an information and communications technology (ICT) survey of every agency created under the act.

“Open source is being used on many platforms including Windows, Solaris, Unix and Mac,” said Brian Catto at an Open Source (News - Alert) Developers' Conference in ANU, Canberra. “Applications being used include Web platforms, Apache; operating systems, Linux; geospatial applications, GeoNetwork; and Web browsers, Firefox.”

Catto is the director of architecture and emerging technologies at AGIMO. A National Open Source Software Observatory report shows that Catto agrees that Australia is a major player in OSS usage both at the national and at the international level.

This was gathered after Australia’s government switched stances from “neutral” to “active consideration” regarding OSS.

In January of this year, AGIMO released its first update since 2005 of its open source software principles – an initiative that hopes to inspire agencies to use more OSS. Gary Gray, special minister of state, says that open source software can be adopted in order to reduce the costs of ICT departments and increase their efficiency.

Code that can be modified within an application makes companies lose less money and time in application fixes. “This revised Australian Government policy on open source software will ensure that we maintain international best practice and that our purchases of software will continue to reflect best value for money for the government,” said Gray.

Catto says that agencies will continue to be audited in 2012 to determine the state of implementations within the Australian government.