● 12.03.10

●● South Tyrol (Italy) Might Make Free Software Mandatory

Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 3:31 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Tyrolean Dolomites

Summary: Italy’s liberation from proprietary software is work in progress despite interferences from Microsoft

ACCORDING to the EU-funded OSOR, Italy carries on its journey towards software freedom (despite Microsoft obstacles) and is now “[c]onsidering the use of open source is mandatory in South Tyrol”:

“Public administrations must use this type of software whenever it meets the requirements, the solution and its community are mature, and when it overall does not cost much more than a commercial alternative”, explained Pöhl, one of the speakers at the South Tyrol Free Software Conference, that took place on 12 November in the Italian city of Bolzano.

As recent experience suggests, corruptible officials like Vendola (mentioned 3 times including the translations [1, 2, 3]) will be Microsoft’s weapon against these moves towards greater autonomy in Italy and Marco serves this latest update from Italy where he gives Vendola the benefit of the doubt:

Personally, I still think that the most likely case is that Vendola and his staff simply didn’t think this through and walked in the deal considering it an harmless, no brainer step. But we’re still in time to make the best out of the deal, or at least control the damage: while I write the Puglia Open Source Law must still be issued and all the activities mentioned in the protocol must still be defined and carried on by that “Committee”. All the FOSS advocates in Italy offered to help with that and the offer is still valid (as long as nobody tells us again “yeah, right, but isn’t it cooler to speak about fibers and fast Internet access?”).

Let’s keep an eye on Italy, which we’ve just added to our Wiki, mostly by grouping the links below in a dynamic page that everyone can edit. █

Activists Battle Microsoft Fascism in ItalyVoters on OOXML Up for ‘Hire’ in Italy (Updated)Survey in Italy: OpenOffice.org Usage in 50% of Companies, GNU/Linux at 63%Microsoft Unleashes the Gartner Group to Sabotage Migration to GNU/Linux in Europe

Microsoft’s plan for Tyrol

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