Ukraine is preparing a program for the transition to Linux and Open Source in government agencies
On May 12, 2009, the State Committee for Informatization of Ukraine held a public discussion on the Concept of the State Target Program for introducing open source software into government bodies, at which officials reported on the decision to switch to open source until 2012 and create a Ukrainian Linux distribution.
51 representatives from government, business, scientific institutions and only one media representative, namely HiTech.Expert correspondent, took part in the round table. So the organizers somehow poorly took care of the broad coverage of this event.
Leaders or representatives of leading domestic companies that work in the field of software development and supply and representative offices in Ukraine, world leaders in the software development industry, such as Microsoft, IBM, Adobe Systems, took part in the discussion.
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“Today, the largest part of allocations from the budget is directed to the purchase of standard software and its legalization. What does it have to do with direct costs, that is, directed directly to software development, the provision of services, or software legalization. Much of the funds are also spent on the purchase of OEM versions. If you take all the costs that go into development, support, software implementation, then the lion's expenses are actually the purchase of licensed software or the legalization of existing ones. At what growth rates are impressive. That is, every year we are increasing by 80%, ”said the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Informatization of Ukraine, Vitaly Balyuk.
According to him, having invested 243 million hryvnias over the past 4 years to purchase proprietary software and its licensing, Ukraine has reduced the level of piracy in public institutions from 76% in 2005 to 52% in 2008. At the same time, Microsoft software continues to be used massively, primarily operating systems and office applications. “This is 98.2% among PC operating systems, 63.3% among network operating systems and 96.1% office software. And only among database management systems there are many different solutions, this is the segment of the Ukrainian market in which Microsoft has real competition, ”said Balyuk.
In addition, a significant portion of the funds used to upgrade office computer equipment. “And the main explanation is that new products appear on the market, and in order to be able to use them, the capacity of computers available is not enough. Thus, over the past 4 years considerable funds have been spent on upgrading computer equipment. Today, almost all civil servants are provided with computer equipment, ”said Balyuk.
According to him, despite the fact that proprietary software costs a considerable amount, its distributors take millions of hryvnas also for support. Thus, funds allocated for the purchase of licensed software can be effectively spent on developing their own open source software.
When the program is accepted and funding is approved, a competition will be announced for the development of a Ukrainian distribution of an operating system based on Linux. For all authorities it is planned to introduce a single operating system.
It is also planned to create an information center for user support and a training center for the training and retraining of specialists.
However, it is not yet known how the software will be further refined and payment will be made for third-party developers involved in this process. “We cannot at the stage of creating the concept know all the answers that Microsoft knows for so many years of work,” said Baliuk.
At the same time, the State Target Program does not aim to switch exclusively to open source software, destroying proprietary software that is already running. “Our goal is to reduce the cost of acquiring new proprietary software, where possible. If 52% of software is unlicensed and UAH 400-600 mln is required on its licensing, then why can not we go to invest part of this money in creating a new direction, creating new jobs, and thus providing equal access to different software models, ”the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee informed.
Source: expert.com.ua
51 representatives from government, business, scientific institutions and only one media representative, namely HiTech.Expert correspondent, took part in the round table. So the organizers somehow poorly took care of the broad coverage of this event.
Leaders or representatives of leading domestic companies that work in the field of software development and supply and representative offices in Ukraine, world leaders in the software development industry, such as Microsoft, IBM, Adobe Systems, took part in the discussion.
')
“Today, the largest part of allocations from the budget is directed to the purchase of standard software and its legalization. What does it have to do with direct costs, that is, directed directly to software development, the provision of services, or software legalization. Much of the funds are also spent on the purchase of OEM versions. If you take all the costs that go into development, support, software implementation, then the lion's expenses are actually the purchase of licensed software or the legalization of existing ones. At what growth rates are impressive. That is, every year we are increasing by 80%, ”said the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Informatization of Ukraine, Vitaly Balyuk.
According to him, having invested 243 million hryvnias over the past 4 years to purchase proprietary software and its licensing, Ukraine has reduced the level of piracy in public institutions from 76% in 2005 to 52% in 2008. At the same time, Microsoft software continues to be used massively, primarily operating systems and office applications. “This is 98.2% among PC operating systems, 63.3% among network operating systems and 96.1% office software. And only among database management systems there are many different solutions, this is the segment of the Ukrainian market in which Microsoft has real competition, ”said Balyuk.
In addition, a significant portion of the funds used to upgrade office computer equipment. “And the main explanation is that new products appear on the market, and in order to be able to use them, the capacity of computers available is not enough. Thus, over the past 4 years considerable funds have been spent on upgrading computer equipment. Today, almost all civil servants are provided with computer equipment, ”said Balyuk.
According to him, despite the fact that proprietary software costs a considerable amount, its distributors take millions of hryvnas also for support. Thus, funds allocated for the purchase of licensed software can be effectively spent on developing their own open source software.
When the program is accepted and funding is approved, a competition will be announced for the development of a Ukrainian distribution of an operating system based on Linux. For all authorities it is planned to introduce a single operating system.
It is also planned to create an information center for user support and a training center for the training and retraining of specialists.
However, it is not yet known how the software will be further refined and payment will be made for third-party developers involved in this process. “We cannot at the stage of creating the concept know all the answers that Microsoft knows for so many years of work,” said Baliuk.
At the same time, the State Target Program does not aim to switch exclusively to open source software, destroying proprietary software that is already running. “Our goal is to reduce the cost of acquiring new proprietary software, where possible. If 52% of software is unlicensed and UAH 400-600 mln is required on its licensing, then why can not we go to invest part of this money in creating a new direction, creating new jobs, and thus providing equal access to different software models, ”the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee informed.
Source: expert.com.ua
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/59775/
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