The justice department of the Belgian federal government decided to rollback some very important decisions made in the past concerning the software platform they run internally.

I was so proud a couple years ago when I heard our government dared take the step towards open source software. The city of München had done so before, and even in Belgium there were a couple important steps made, amongst others by the city administration of Schoten.
Not only did they choose OpenOffice (as did the justice dep.), but also Asterisk for all telephony. And the results were satisfying.

Regional judges’ offices all over Belgium (in cases of domestic violence or small disputes) we already running Suse Linux, OpenOffice and the likes and an internal report said that project was running smoothly and the users in the field were happy with the solution.

As always, going for an open source solution means you need the necessary know-how within the IT department (or through consultancy, of course) and apparently, that’s where it went wrong at the justice department: they are now moving entirely towards Microsoft’s solutions again: Microsoft Exchange for mail, Windows 7 for the desktop and MS Office as content editor.

Did these people forget the track record of Microsoft in the past? The EU has repeatedly confirmed unlawful commercial practices and fined Microsoft hundreds of millions. Yet our government chose this manufacturer to do business with.
The fact that Microsoft Consultancy Services (not real MS people, but guns-for-hire!!!) are taking care of the entire move back FOR FREE should ring a bell, though. And how about the rest of us, who are selling their services (non-free)?

Open source software, given away for free has the advantage that the customer is not limited to one supplier to provide him with support. The decisions made when developing the software are also not driven by economics but by what the community decides should be created. A very important difference!

Disappointed and ashamed I am in this matter. And eager to see the outcome in the long run.