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What do you think: should all government software be open source? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by fajre@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I’ve been thinking about transparency and security in the public sector. Do you think all government software and platforms should be open source?

Some countries have already made progress in this area:

Estonia: digital government services with open and auditable APIs.
United Kingdom: several open source government projects and systems published on GitHub.
France and Canada: policies encouraging the use of free and open source software in public agencies.

Possible benefits:

Full transparency: anyone can audit the code, ensuring there is no corruption, hidden flaws, or unauthorized data collection.
Enhanced security: public reviews help identify vulnerabilities quickly.
Cost reduction: less dependency on private vendors and lower spending on proprietary licenses.
Flexibility and innovation: public agencies can adapt systems to their needs without relying on external solutions.

Possible challenges:

Maintenance and updating of complex systems.
Protecting sensitive data without compromising citizen privacy.
Political or bureaucratic resistance to opening the code.

Do you think this could be viable in the governments of your countries? How could we start making this a reality globally?

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

microsoft is extremely replaceable by libreoffice.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You do understand that was one of many very relatable examples?

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

absolutely. that's why i think in the long run, we will see more of libreoffice and less of ms office. there's always the possibility of microsoft shenanigans, though.

public dealings should naturally have good reason to be closed or rely on private services outside democratic oversight. any citizen should be able to figure out how the public machine works and that includes the computers, whenever applicable. i can conceive of the exceptions of course.

[–] ikilledlaurapalmer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think you underestimate what office is now and how it is used

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

on most workplaces i've been in, it's a run of the mill office suite, with occasional duct tape database action.

for these migrating to libreoffice will just replace the quirks, except its not in the hands of microsoft anymore.

there is certainly more uses of course, but these gets ever more niche.

[–] ikilledlaurapalmer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That may be true, but in larger org, things like auditable documents are critical, and believe it or not sharepoint can handle this. Outlook is used in complex ways. Powerautomate flows do a ton, and they may sound goofy at first, but having them sit in the middle of all of the orgs office tools (including email, chat, doc management, etc) makes them actually powerful.

I thought I’d be the last person singing the praises of M$ office, but it really does do a great job in a large org catering to a WIDE range of users and abilities.

But yes, a small business can just use libreoffice for word processing and budgeting. That part is free, but then depending on the needs of the org you still have to handle things like email, document sharing, permissions, etc.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

and my point is there are foss alternatives to every software you mention, with it's own complexity and workflow.

you seem convinced they are worse or not as powerful, when they are just different with their own quirks. even if they weren't, the loss of productivity is worth not relying on us software in the long run, and making our own.