[News] Malaysian Government Moves to Free Software Rapidly..

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Open Source Progress in Malaysia

,----[ Quote ]
| Here are some stunning facts that were
| published at the end of July in Malaysia:
|
| More than 70 percent of Malaysian
| government offices are running open
| source software, according to figures
| released by the country's Open Source
| Competency Centre.
|
| The centre was established as part of
| the 2004 Malaysian Public Sector OSS
| Master Plan, to guide and co-ordinate
| the implementation of OSS in the public
| sector.
|
| The latest OSS adoption figures,
| released on 24 July, show that 521 of
| the country's 724 public sector
| agencies (72 per cent) have adopted
| OSS. This is a significant increase
| from 354 agencies (49 percent) in 2008
| and 163 (22.5 per cent) in 2007.
`----

http://www.opensource.org/node/489

Letter to The President: # 4

,----[ Quote ]
| Under her leadership, that institution has
| stood in defense of free and open source
| software (FOSS) and has served to introduce
| the larger portion of the general public to
| the existence of FOSS and its (FOSS')
| viability as a business model.
|
| Still on the topic of free software, a
| major event announcement was made involving
| global IT giant IBM, Canonical, the company
| behind the most popular and fastest growing
| distribution (Ubuntu) of the Linux
| operating system and other partners. They
| launched a Cloud- and Linux-based Netbook
| Software in Africa. Described as a
| "flexible personal computing software
| package for netbooks and other thin client
| devices to help businesses in Africa bridge
| the digital divide by leapfrogging
| traditional PCs and proprietary software",
| the bundle is the first cloud- and Linux-
| based offering from IBM and Canonical. The
| initiative targets the rising market for
| netbooks.
`----

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=171387

Defense: Open source software is more secure than commercial code

,----[ Quote ]
| Open source software, freely available
| program code that the public can download
| and modify, which many agencies avoid
| because they view it as a security risk, is
| often more secure than the alternatives
| that are commercially developed, a top
| Defense Department official said on
| Thursday.
`----

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091105_5058.php?oref=topstory


Recent:

Malaysia to Switch Government Agencies to Open Source

,----[ Quote ]
| To date, 462 agencies from a total of 720 agencies have implemented Open
| Source Software, which managed to provide a savings of more than RM47
| million, said Mampu deputy director of ICT (information and communications
| technology) policy and planning division, Tan King Ing.
`----

http://geek2live.blogspot.com/2009/05/malaysia-to-switch-government-ag...ies.htm


Malaysian Government Saves Big with Open Source

,----[ Quote ]
| Open Source in the public sector seemed to be all the rage in 2008, with
| government agencies all over Europe — not to mention agencies of the EU
| itself — adopting, and in many cases, mandating Open Source software and
| standards. Of course, Europe was not the only continent cozying up with a
| copy of the source code — governments in Africa, Asia, North & South America,
| and all over the South Pacific were exploring and implementing Open Source in
| 2008. Now, one of those governments has revealed the savings-side of OSS, and
| the numbers they're tossing around are pretty nice.
`----

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/malaysian-government-saves-big-open-source


OSS adoption gaining ground

,----[ Quote ]
| OPEN-SOURCE software ­adoption is set to experience a steady growth in
| Malaysia, said open-source technology ­solutions provider, Red Hat Inc
`----.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2008/12/19/technology...0812191


Open source software helps govt save RM32mil

,----[ Quote ]
| The government managed to save RM32 million in expenditure through the
| implementation of open source software (OSS) in government agencies and
| departments, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan
| said.
|
| He said the saving for the first phase of the project, involving OSS
| implementation in 15 agencies and departments, was RM10 million.
|
| Some RM22 million was saved in the second phase which involved the
| installation of OpenOffice software on 10,682 computers and the use of 174
| products from the open source competency centre, he said.
`----

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/NewsBreak/20081105185.../Articl


Related:

Malaysia seen as top market for open-source convergence

,----[ Quote ]
| Malaysia is a leading adopter of open-source convergence software, according
| to key speakers at the AsterConference 2008, held recently in Kuala Lumpur.
`----

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/22/malaysia-seen-top-market-op...source-


Let's complain about Microsoft restricting choice in the market (part deux)

,----[ Quote ]
| Yoon Kit wrote about being forced to pay the Microsoft tax when buying
| computers from computer manufacturers (eg Dell). I submitted a complaint to
| the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Affairs and received an official
| acknowledgment from the ministry that the Penang branch office will
| investigate the complaint.
|
| I strongly urge everybody who uses non-Microsoft operating systems on their
| computers bought from Dell or any other manufacturers to write in through the
| web interface and make an official complaint. Make your voices heard so that
| we can stop being forced to pay for software we don't use!
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/09/lets-complain-a.html


OpenOffice.org deployed in Malaysian Schools

,----[ Quote ]
| Just announced today (27 August 2008), The Malaysian Administrative
| Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and the Ministry of
| Education (MoE) are working with the State Government of Terengganu to
| further increase the adoption of Open Source Software in government and
| schools. This is announced at the "Open Source Software Seminar for
| Accelerated Adpotion" held at Wisma Darul Iman, Terengganu.
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/08/openofficeorg-d.html


Malaysia's Sabah State Government moves to OpenOffice.org too.

,----[ Quote ]
| In this very concise notice, Sabah's State Government has announced that they
| will be joining the OOo bandwagon!
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/08/malaysias-sabah.html


Melaka City Council's OSS migration and savings

,----[ Quote ]
| In our ongoing series of Free and Open Source Software deployments in
| Malaysia, OpenMalaysiaBlog is proud to highlight the efforts of the City
| Council of Melaka. They were one of the first few departments to migrate
| completely to OpenOffice.org (98% of their 300 hundred seats. They need to
| retain a few copies of MS Office for some difficult proprietary files). Back
| in 8 December 2006, the Mayor of Melaka, Y.Bhg. Dato' Haji Zaini bin Mohd
| Nor, presented "Successful Deployment Of OpenOffice In The Public Sector
| Seminar" and was very enthusiastic about OpenOffice.org.
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/08/melaka-city-cou.html


The State of Kedah moves to OpenOffice.org

,----[ Quote ]
| A case study submitted to the Open Source Competency Center by the Center of
| Information Technology, Office of the Chief Minister and State Secretary of
| Kedah, has indicated that OpenOffice.org has been installed in 70% of the
| computers in the Kedah state government agencies. There are currently 2,202
| installed seats and by the looks of it, the numbers will just keep rising!
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/08/case-study-on-t.html


The entire State of Pahang moves to OpenOffice.org

,----[ Quote ]
| Its just been made official that the State of Pahang is migrating all its
| productivity suites to OpenOffice.org. This succint memo from the State
| Secretary of Pahang entitled "Perlaksanaan Penggunaan Perisian OpenOffice.Org
| Di Semua Agensi dan Pentadbiran Negeri" (translated: "Implementation of
| OpenOffice.org suite in all State Agencies and Administrative centres")
| outlines the reasons for migrating, the benefits and how to proceed.
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/08/the-entire-stat.html


The Pikom Meeting About Microsoft's OOXML ... No! (bangs the table) Ecma 376!

,----[ Quote ]
| Doug noted that the guys on the opposite side of the table from Microsoft
| (and (BANGS hand on table!) Ecma!) did not discuss any of the 23 comments
| made by Malaysia for the BRM ... and he's right, we didn't. Again, speaking
| for myself, prior to the meeting, I was sceptical that the "pro-OOXML" gang
| would actually just concentrate on that. This was mainly because I didn't
| know who would be attending on their side. I certainly did not expect that
| Microsoft would bring Doug Mahugh, Oliver Bell, Dave Welsh and (BANGS hand on
| table!) Jan van de Veld, former Sec-Gen of Ecma International. I fully
| expected Microsoft to apply the Chewbacca Defense strategy, and therefore
| figured that I must concentrate on my own Wookie-based defense.
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/the-pikom-meeti.html


Reports: Malaysia unmoved in OOXML vote

,----[ Quote ]
| Minister ignored objections
| According to Open Malaysia, the Malaysian Industrial Standards Committee for
| IT (ISC-G) took a vote on Mar. 27 to decide the country's stance on the
| OOXML-ISO vote, with 13 disapprovals, five abstentions and only three
| approvals.
|
| By eventually taking the decision to abstain in the OOXML ISO ballot, Maximus
| Ongkili, who is two weeks into the job as Minister of Science, Technology and
| Innovation--following the country's Mar. 8 general elections--appeared to
| have ignored the ISC-G's majority "disapprove" vote.
`----

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62039739,00.htm


OpenOffice.org and ODF adoption in Malaysia - thumbs up!

,----[ Quote ]
| Now, you can hold them to their word, as they update a Wiki page, informing
| you about how many agencies are moving to OpenOffice.org. Big wins, once all
| of the Malaysian government related agencies are on OpenOffice.org (open
| source software in general). Again, read OpenOffice.org and ODF Adoption!
`----

http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/04/27/openofficeorg-and-odf-...ption-i


Return of the Living Dead - Brainless Attack on MoSTI - Part Deux!!!

,----[ Quote ]
| I dont know what the attraction is, but somehow we all love the morbid
| fascination of Zombies in action. First, Microsoft^H^H^H^H^HCompTIA hires Mr
| Jan van der Beld, Ex-Ecma Secretary General, to fly all the way here in KL,
| for an event supposedly about "good multiple standards". There he challenges
| us to find a better way to Fast Track large, immature vendor dependent
| specifications. The answer is of course: "Don't do it." Later on that same
| day, like a man possessed, he turns up at a PIKOM meeting only to rant and
| thump tables.
|
| Then today, in our fantastic broadsheet turned tabloid "The New Straits
| Times" features a "Comment" by our so called "cooler head" Datuk Dr Mohd
| Ariffin Aton entitled "Walking the Talk on neutrality policy". If you've
| forgotten about him, you may be forgiven, but he is or rather WAS the CEO if
| SIRIM Bhd.
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/return-of-the-l.html


How to Royally Annoy National Bodies

,----[ Quote ]
| Guide to future monopolists on how to alienate yourself from National Bodies:
|
| 1. Waste NBs time in reviewing monstrous draft specifications
| 2. Claim that these specs can do everything for anyone by standardising
| marketing material
| 3. If you don't get your way at a certain level, lobby the superior above.
| Dont stop! Go all the way to the head of the nation if you think you can!
| 4. Leak press stories to journalists to pressure Ministries to make a
| decision. Quick!
| 5. Try to shut down TCs if actual technical work is done revealing issues
| with your plan
| 6. Question Question Question everything (process, fairness, the system,
| members) when things dont go your way
| 7. Otherwise create another TC with friendly experts
| 8. If the NB allows new members just by paying membership fees, encourage
| your business partners to join with marketing funds. Stack-stack-stack it
| high!
| 9. Stalk decision makers, even if it means traveling around the globe with
| them
| 10. Refuse changes in the spec especially if it breaks your product which
| you released prior
| 11. Have private interviews with TC members in the guise of funding for
| their new projects/research grants/interoperability initiatives and
| conveniently talk about their position on your spec.
| 12. Get your Business Partners to write in form letters. Some don't even
| bother to change the templates
| 13. Attend TC meetings uninvited by fabricating business cards
| 14. Send Lawyers in to Technical Committee meetings who prefer not to
| engage in "high-school" debates
| 15. Make rude and inaccurate statements against TC members in public
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/how-to-royally.html
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