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U.S. government agencies turn to Linux

By LISA PICKOFF-WHITE

WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Linux has crawled out of university basements to become a major player in today's computing world. As government agencies are being forced to do more with a smaller budget more agencies are turning to the open source movement for a solution.

In Mississippi three counties and 30 agencies formed a jail management system to pool all law enforcement and homeland security forces together using Linux. Proprietary companies that do not share their code bid at $1 million. The Open Source Software Institute did the job for $300,000 because all they had to do was customize the already available open source software and offer support, said John Weathersby executive director of OSSI. They then donated the code so that any government agency can use the system for free.

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OSSI also works with the U.S. Navy to use Linux for Web services and architecture environments and is involved in remote imaging and sensing projects.

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"Most people do not even know what they are already using though," Weathersby said. "I was talking to a group of officers and they said, well maybe we could use it in one or two places. But, it had already snuck in the back door. They were using Linux and didn't even know it."

Governments worldwide already have invested more than $2 billion in Linux, said Mary Ann Fisher, the Linux program public sector director for IBM. More than 160 different governments worldwide use Linux programs. China and Brazil have both created their own Linux distros to distribute for negligible prices to their populations. Paris and Munich city government agencies are switching to Linux as well.

Major corporations such as Hewlett Packard and IBM are following suit and investing in research and development.

In 2003, IBM dedicated to spending $1 billion on Linux and continues to spend equitable amounts, Fisher said. More than 25,000 IBM employees are using a desktop pilot, 2,500 servers are doing Linux research and development and they have 4,500 Linux business partners.

Local and state agencies tend to use Linux differently than larger federal agencies, she said.

"State and local governments tend to focus on open source as improving service," Fisher said. "They use Linux for portals, licensing, permits, taxes, data storage and to network the police, fire department and 911. These are all services that touch the community."

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For instance, in New Jersey the Department of Human Services automated the Child-Welfare Implementation System so that online records were available to about 175 case workers. Records went through the system in a matter of hours instead of days, Fisher said.

Many local governments are switching to Linux since it is cheaper because there are no proprietary requirements, said Larry Rosenshein the director of global public sector solutions at Novell.

He worked with the state of Nebraska as part of an ongoing program to switch over their servers and other systems to Suse Linux, which Novell acquired early last year.

"They saved 30 percent of their budget by not using a proprietary vendor," Rosenshein said. "And this way everything is streamlined."

Before the state was using many different systems and could not afford to continue paying for all of them and the people who knew each specific one, he said. While there is always an immediate savings in switching infrastructures, agencies need to budget for Linux training though.

"You have to budget training and anyone train everyone who is going to switch over to the new platform," Rosenshein said.

Federal agencies are mainly switching over because of the security features, Fisher said.

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"On the federal level we see the military mostly adopting," Fisher said. "They're incredibly innovative. They use it for important field operations to save time, lives and money."

Weathersby, who works with Red Hat and the Navy as part of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, said that Linux's security is one of its biggest strengths.

"The NSA developed a version of Linux and if you can find a more secure agency, let me know," Weathersby said.

That foreign nationals often write a significant amount of the code is a good thing, not bad, he said.

"National security supersedes any license agreement. This is one of the great things about open source, we have everyone working on it, so it's the best it can be," Weathersby said. "You're not locked in, if you don't like us then you can go over to another vendor with no problems."

Some of the largest hurdles to government Linux use are inertia and misunderstandings of how the system works, Weathersby said.

Agencies do not need to switch over completely to Linux, but instead catalog their needs and look at Linux as an alternative when appropriate.

"Open source is a viable alternative. This is not a zero sum game. You can just use if for your servers or as applications on top of Windows. You use it where you see a need," Weathersby said.

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People are also afraid of losing everything they already have, or do not see a real need to switch if they will have to pay for training, Rosenshein said. This is why local governments who are under more monetary pressures are switching to Linux more frequently than larger agencies.

"If you're a government CIO and everything is working well enough, and you're retiring in five years, you're not going to bother switching unless you're under extreme pressure," Rosenshein said. "People really don't like change, it causes turmoil and angst."

Countries that do not have computer "baggage" turn to Linux more quickly than America because they do not have to be afraid of retraining staff or converting files, he said.

"In India, China, Brazil you have a lot of people who are using computers for the first time. They don't have files to transfer over. They're not afraid," Rosenshein said.

As older federal employees retire and younger ones have to be trained anyway it will be a good time to switch, he said.

"In five years 30 percent of government employees are going to retire, that's when we'll have the chance to standardize. Everyone will have to learn something new anyway," Rosenshein said.

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All you need is one state to really make an effort and then others will follow their example, he said.

"When California reorganizes their state government there is going to be a possibility for open source and they'll lead the way," Rosenshein. "Once companies have to make a standard for one state, they'll make it for everyone instead of having two models."

Basil Harris, the Novell director of Linux Solution Migration, thinks that people will adopt Linux when they do not have to change their habits from Windows.

"The operating system is invisible, and it should be," Harris said. "It will be popular when it can do all the things that people see Windows do seamlessly. It will become a viable alternative and that's happening now."

Open source is good for open government and fiscally responsible, he said.

Groups that work with government agencies are already preparing for Linux collaboration.

The American Foundation of the Blind works with Access World Solutions to create Linux-based programs for the disabled.

"Even they know it's going to be the next big thing," said Caesar Eghsesadi, president of TechforAll who works on the project.

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