Microsoft`s offer earlier this month to give governments access to the source code for its products as part of a new government licensing scheme has come a little too late and offers far too little, one suspects, for the South African government. So much so that, almost at the same time the Microsoft marketing machine was capitalising on the news, the South Africa State Information Technology Agency (Sita) was announcing that it expects to save up to R3 billion by opting to go the open source software route. And, at the same time, the Government IT Officers Council (Gitoc) was mulling over the final drafts of a policy framework that proposes to “actively” promote the use of open source in government and public service delivery. A document was expected to be signed off by the end of January.

It is not that Microsoft isn`t trying its hardest to woo governments, typically the largest users of IT in countries, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it can`t compete against a stable, free alternative.

Financially strapped government departments have public service obligations and the only way many of them can afford to fulfil these is through the use of open source. What really matters to government is not so much the fact that they can see the source code but rather that they can have it for free, use it, re-use it and not be beholden to anyone, least of all Microsoft. And, more importantly, that they can have it immediately.