Ministry encourages open source software

Ministry encourages open source software
16:34' 27/12/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has
recommended state agencies use four open source software products -
Open Office, Thunderbird, Firefox and Unikey.

Dang Duc Mai, Head of the Information Technology Department under the
Ministry of Finance, said the Information and Communication Ministry’s
recommendation is critical but lacks an implementation plan.

“My point of view is that decisions are not enough; we need clear
policies and plans. I think we need at least three years for users to
acclimate themselves with open source software,” Mai added.

Open Office and Unikey seem to be popular among State employees while
Thunderbird and Firefox are unfamiliar.

“It is good to encourage State employees to use open source software.
It is also very good to have a list of recommended software. It is much
better to recommend and educate people about various operating systems
because certain software works best with different ones,” said Dr.
Nguyen Quang A, former chairman of the Vietnam Information Processing
Association.

It is not clear whether the Ministry of Information and Communications
introduced this list of software to cut down on copyright infringement
in Vietnam, or to increase the demand for open-source software, but
regardless, this is a step in the right direction, said Dr. A.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2007/12/761476/