OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY SHOULD SET UP COMPANIES

Open Source Community Should Set Up Companies
Thursday, 26 April, 2007 | 17:03 WIB


TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government wants open source software developers to establish software companies.

Information and Communication Minister Sofyan Djalil has said that up until now, open source users have experienced problems because there are no user support services.

The support, said Sofyan, takes the form of usage consultation and assistance.

“As a result, the users are forced to be independent,” he said yesterday (04/25) in Jakarta.

The situation has resulted in open source software being considered less attractive by many computer users.

In addition, open source community could also take part in computer software legalization tenders in regional government offices by forming companies.

“So that government officials and general users know where to ask when they face a problem,” said Sofyan.
In addition, the software legalization process would be cheaper and could empower local potential in developing software.

According to Rusmanto, Editor-in-Chief of InfoLinux Magazine, there are already many open source developer companies.

“They are innumerable,” said Rusmanto.

In fact, all information technology companies in Indonesia are capable of providing open source software.

Many information technology companies, said Rusmanto, are ready to join government computer software legalization tenders.

“As long as the conditions are not discriminative and the tender is neutral,” he said.

Based on research results, the use of open source can reduce cost by between 50 and 70 percent compared to using proprietary software.

M Nur Rochmi