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Open Source Software

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BACKGROUND of the FOSS PROJECT

The Government of Jamaica signed an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft in June 2004, which covers 6000 users of Microsoft desktop software (Windows XP, Office, and desktop Client Access Licenses--CALs) across government. As part of the Cabinet submission which authorized the execution of that contract, the Government stipulated that by the end of the 3-year agreement, there needs to be in place, an alternative to Microsoft products that will facilitate a credible choice in user tools. The Central Information Technology Office (CITO) has the responsibility to ensure this mandate is realized.

This decision is in keeping with trends that have seen increasing momentum in the deployment of FOSS across various companies, municipalities and governments in the region and across the globe, particularly in emerging markets, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Peru in South America; Malaysia and South Korea in Asia; and
Africa. FOSS is being increasingly embraced in these regions as a means to extend the reach of technology, and increase social and economic competitiveness.

Further to all this, CITO has received enquiries and requests from several quarters of GoJ regarding a centrally coordinated effort to implement FOSS. Therefore, part of CITO’s goal in executing this project is to meet the demand for FOSS across GoJ.

 

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

To establish a FOSS pilot with the Government of Jamaica that will provide a viable and sustainable alternative to proprietary software products for the GoJ, such that cost savings in the procurement and management of software licences can be achieved.

To target for migration from Microsoft products to FOSS/Linux products, the following components of the enterprise computing environment:

  • PC Desktop Applications: FOSS applications and productivity tools (e.g. Open Office Suite and Firefox web browser)
  • PC Desktop Operating System: Linux OS distribution
  • Backoffice Systems/Servers: Linux-based servers, Open Source Databases, Open Source Enterprise Applications

To utilize the pilot organizations to develop a comparative Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis of procuring, deploying and supporting FOSS technologies versus proprietary technologies across government; including comparative productivity assessment (between proprietary and FOSS desktop products) and evaluation of the impact of information/file exchanges among proprietary and FOSS Office software suites. This will enable the government to empirically evaluate the most cost‑effective approach to take in terms of procurement and deployment of software technologies in the future.