14 DAY TRIAL // The Dutch Parliament has determined that vendor dependency is a much greater risk, and they have voted on a resolution that would encourage the government to also look at open standards in ICT procurement.
More and more governments are now looking to free themselves from vendor dependency, but what does that mean exactly? For example, when a government or the local administration decides to adopt, say, Microsoft products, they do more than just get some applications. At some point, those applications or operating systems will get a massive update or a new version will be out, and the company won't provide it for free.
The more people use proprietary software, the harder it gets to get rid of it if you find a better and cheaper alternative. This is why many countries are looking to implement policies that allow administrations to take open source into consideration when they are looking for IT solutions.
The Netherlands is not the only country struggling with this issue
As you can imagine, there is a powerful lobby out there that tries to prevent people from making drastic changes and turn open-source adoption into a real solution. Many companies have a lot of money invested in this, so things won't happen overnight.
"The Dutch government’s lack of vendor independence is too high a cost for society, the Dutch Parliament concludes. The government should enforce its policy on open standards in ICT procurement and should also devise exit strategies - to reduce its dependence on ICT suppliers.This week Tuesday, the parliament adopted a resolution criticism the government for having no open source ambition. The resolution was adopted with 136 votes in favor and 14 against," reads the entry on joinup.ec.europa.eu.
It doesn't mean that the Netherlands will now switch to open-source software; just that open source will get much more attention when the government is looking to find some ICT solutions for their needs.