Maltese open source community looking forward

The news that the Maltese government is entertaining the deployment of open source software (OSS) in the Maltese public service, as reported by i-Tech a few weeks ago, has generated strong interest among the small but thriving open source community in the Maltese Islands.

"The announcement ... came as a surprise, albeit a very welcome one," said Ramon Casha, founder and committee member of Malta Linux User Group (MLUG). "It signals a shift from the government being bound to and dependent almost exclusively on one supplier to a more open ICT scene, and one which is based on some very healthy practices of openness and competition. This new announcement could be the beginning of an important new phase in the Maltese ICT scene and augurs well for the future."

Linux, one of the most popular OSS softwares, is an operating system just like Microsoft's Windows. Its popularity has been rising steadily in the ICT industry and not just among the geeks and buffs, with such heavyweights as Oracle, IBM and Sun putting their weight behind open source.

"Even Microsoft, often seen as the arch-enemy of open source, changed tack and has already released a variety of products under an open source licence. Open source software is used by banks, hospitals, stock exchanges and military, and is even happily running up in the International Space Station," added Mr Casha, who sees OSS fitting in the Maltese government's current ICT set-ups.

Claudio Carta, a junior software programmer with MuleSource, an American open source software developer with an office in Malta, thinks working on different systems has its advantages.

"The process might take quite a while in order to be generally accepted because the general community got used to systems such as Microsoft Windows."

Jim Sims, an American independent software developer for different operating systems who lives in Gozo, also welcomed the news.

"They say that the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem. Is the Maltese government admitting to a problem or is it declaring it simply wants to increase freedom? I think the statement issued by the government is a first step towards freedom. It takes courage to take that step," he said.

"Rigidity, closed environments, and turning only to the familiar can be comforting but inevitably leads to the dustbin of the IT world. Learning new systems and making choices is a bit scary, but an environment of learning, innovation and freedom is much more productive than one of mere recitation. That is also the direction towards creativity, a direction which is vital to be considered a 'centre of excellence'."

Indeed, the implications of the decision on using OSS go beyond the simple fact of saving on costs and having viable alternatives to vendor-specific software. It will have a bearing on SmartCity Malta. "One of the serious concerns about Maltese ICT courses is that many of them are almost exclusively based on Microsoft technologies," warned Mr Casha.

"When job offers start coming out of SmartCity Malta, not all of them will be seeking Microsoft skills. Most will want students with diverse skills. The student who has hands-on experience in Linux as well as Windows, MySQL as well as SQL Server, PHP and Java as well as .NET will be much better placed than the thousands who all know Windows, SQL Server and .NET, and only those. Open source allows students to gain as much experience and knowledge as their talents allow, rather than being held back by cost."

Open source is more pervasive than many think. Many of the chores we do daily, such as sending and receiving e-mail, have an open source component in them.

The founder of the Malta Linux User Groups insists on open standards.

"Open source software frequently coexists quite happily with commercial software, and indeed there are still many areas where the best products available are not the open-source ones. This is why another vital policy for the government is to insist on open standards. These are computer standards that allow different products to exchange data and work together in a heterogeneous environment. The reason you can send e-mail using Thunderbird and receive it in Outlook Express or Google mail is that there is a set of open standards for e-mails.

"Nowadays there is also ODF as a standards for the exchange of word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Web Services allow web applications written on different platforms to work together and share data easily. The ZIP file has become a ubiquitous standard for exchanging compressed archives. MP3 files allow music to be used on devices as diverse as computers, portable players and car stereos. It is important that the government insists on such open, free standards for the storage, retrieval and exchange of its data."

The Maltese government's announcement on OSS suggests there will be trials of open source software in public schools and in community technology learning centres. But at this stage, OSS is being only explored and tested, and no final decision is expected any time soon.