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posted by janrinok on Saturday September 11 2021, @11:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the freedom dept.

While fastidiously avoiding use of the F-word [i.e. freedom], the European Commission has published a very long report on the impact of open source software and hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy. Open hardware is also covered.

This study analyses the economic impact of Open Source Software (OSS) and Hardware (OSH) on the European economy. It was commissioned by the European Commission's DG CONNECT.

It is estimated that companies located in the EU invested around €1 billion in OSS in 2018, which resulted in an impact on the European economy of between €65 and €95 billion. The analysis estimates a cost-benefit ratio of above 1:4 and predicts that an increase of 10% of OSS contributions would annually generate an additional 0.4% to 0.6% GDP as well as more than 600 additional ICT start-ups in the EU. Case studies reveal that by procuring OSS instead of proprietary software, the public sector could reduce the total cost of ownership, avoid vendor lock-in and thus increase its digital autonomy. The study also contains an analysis of existing public policy actions in Europe and around the world.

Back in 2006, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh prepared a similar report for UNU-MERIT, Study on the effect on the development of the information society of European public bodies making their own software available as open source, in The Netherlands.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:22AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:22AM (#1177134)

    open everything

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by turgid on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:27AM (2 children)

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:27AM (#1177188) Journal

      We're living the dream here... or something. We've got more freedumb, dimocracy and British sovereign tea than we know what to do with and we wave our Union Jacks all day long.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:00PM (#1177283)

        But nobody to pick the fruit...

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @06:02PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @06:02PM (#1177450)

        this brainwashed cunt probably wants more non-whites brought in.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:35AM (21 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:35AM (#1177137) Journal

    In fresh news, the city of Munich switches its administration to Linux and LibreOffice...

    Uh oh... I was aiming for Funny, but the reality made me just an old news peddler - May 2020: Linux not Windows: Why Munich is shifting back from Microsoft to open source – again [zdnet.com]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:55AM (18 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:55AM (#1177140) Journal

      Microsoft went to Munich with big guns, lots of money, and bought an election for a mayor who would do their bidding. No secrets there.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:57AM (17 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:57AM (#1177142) Journal

        Microsoft went to Munich with big guns...

        Future tense may likely work too.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @03:07AM (10 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @03:07AM (#1177163)

          Uh-oh, the universe is off the rails: c0lo seemed civil toward Runaway. Reboot c0lo and see if that fixes it.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:25AM (6 children)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:25AM (#1177171) Journal

            You don't read too many of my replies to Runaway, do you?

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @10:48AM (5 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @10:48AM (#1177203)

              Any number of your replies read is too many. (large grin?) (just trying to be funny... someone got it above)

              You're pretty civil in general. A bit too outspoken about 'murican politics. You really have to live here to get it. Unless you truly think about 1/2 of the population are idiots. In which case, you undermine the concept of democracy. Quite a conundrum, no?

              • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:07PM (3 children)

                by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:07PM (#1177210) Journal

                You really have to live here to get it.

                And you really have to live outside it for a long while (to unlearn America) to see how bizarre look, for a good part of this world, the excesses that get in the news about American life.
                I don't doubt that there's a lot of common sensical and mundane life in US. That's normal, so don't expect it to be mentioned. It's the "excessive different" that picks my interest.

                --
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 13 2021, @02:06PM (2 children)

                  by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday September 13 2021, @02:06PM (#1177407) Journal

                  And you really have to live outside it for a long while (to unlearn America) to see how bizarre look, for a good part of this world, the excesses that get in the news about American life.

                  Anybody accepting and approving the military lockdown in Australia now should refrain from commenting on anyone else's country for any reason whatsoever.

                  --
                  Washington DC delenda est.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @06:19PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @06:19PM (#1177455)

                "Unless you truly think about 1/2 of the population are idiots."

                Yes

                Although sprinkled in are a bunch of opportunistic greedy bastards happy to support liars and thieves as long as they can get theirs and support their wedge issues like guns and control over women. The rest are *dumb as rocks and actually think trump is a good guy.

                *brainwashed/dumb, not much difference

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:46AM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:46AM (#1177174)

            If anything, C0lo goes out of his way to be civil towards Runaway.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:56PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:56PM (#1177220)

              Of course. It's hard to do your job as a foreign troll if people won't listen to you.

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:02PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:02PM (#1177285)

              2 douchbags kiss and make up. Ahhhh so fucking nice to see.

        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:05AM

          by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:05AM (#1177168) Journal

          Future tense may likely work too.

          The 2006 report was quite well done. This new one from 2021, well it's not such high quality. It took a very long time and a lot of effort to read and I had only skimmed it when I wrote the submission. Shame on me. It turns out to have been a very poor choice. Overall, I was profoundly disappointed in the approach they took this time. There are several errors in the core methodology:

          1. software is ineligible for patents within Europe, painting them as "computer-implemented inventions" notwithstanding
          2. patents are not an indicator for innovation, rather they hurt economically, and has been proven time and again
          3. M$ GitHub has never been an indicator of FOSS development at large, especially not after the sale to M$

          However, the presence of that garbage dressed up as a report is interesting in itself. It means that M$ and the software patent lobby have been able to get one over on the EC, perhaps after having infiltrated it or bought it out.

          --
          Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:43PM (4 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @12:43PM (#1177215) Journal
          Big guns are expensive. And Microsoft failed once already to make it stick.
          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:23PM (3 children)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:23PM (#1177217) Journal

            Not like Microsoft is a quick learner, never underestimate the big corporate ineptitude.
            How many iterations they went with their WinCE and Windows Phone? They even bough the smart mobile division from Nokia.
            I hear they're preparing themselves for a Win8 repeat with Windows 11.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:40PM (2 children)

              by Gaaark (41) on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:40PM (#1177238) Journal

              God forbid they buy Munich too!!!! :O

              :)

              --
              --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
              • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:38PM

                by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:38PM (#1177252) Journal

                Why? Their acquisition strategy proved a failure time and again. Buying the entire Munich and abandoning it after** may finally rid the world on MS.

                ** Nokia still makes smart phones [nokia.com], I reckon the Bavarians will continue to make beer. Granted it won't be root beer, you'll need to sudo apt-get beer or yum install beer.

                --
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 13 2021, @02:09PM

                by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday September 13 2021, @02:09PM (#1177411) Journal

                It is not hard to understand why MS would want to buy Munich. The properly sized beer mugs [pinimg.com] are reason enough.

                --
                Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:22PM (#1177236)

      Interesting, I missed that story.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @11:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @11:38AM (#1177386)

      The city of Munich need a new OS called pendulum OS

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @03:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @03:19AM (#1177166)

    n/t

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday September 12 2021, @06:07AM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Sunday September 12 2021, @06:07AM (#1177180)

    Well, if they're not proud enough to say it, you can always count on Earthicans to do so [youtu.be].

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:05PM (18 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday September 12 2021, @01:05PM (#1177216) Journal

    With all the advantages of open source, or "libre", I continue to wonder how proprietary software even survives, let alone thrives.

    A lot of it is social. People buy into the simplistic idea that "you get what you pay for". Another social aspect is that many people want some heroic figure associated with the software. Not a dude in spandex tights, but a powerful, rich, capitalistic computer and business prodigy kind of a person. They seem to find it reassuring to know that Bill Gates will not allow Windows or MS Office to fail, and has the wherewithal to make it work. Why a person like RMS couldn't also be that to them, I don't quite know, but I suppose it's another social matter, RMS seems too Socialist, even Communist, and they don't understand or trust that. Maybe Linus Torvalds has achieved that status? One of the weirdest things about the business world is that they are relentless about the "bottom line", cutting costs, yet this massive savings to be had from adoption of Libre software, many won't even consider, behaving as if the concept violates the principles of good business. It's all MS Office and PDF.

    Another major problem is maintenance and "bit rot". Ideally, it should be possible to finish an app. To reuse code. Write that killer app, and then no one ever needs to rewrite it. But the reality hasn't quite lived up to that.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:17PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:17PM (#1177225)
      Bitrot? Just look at all the bitrot in unsupported code in the average Linux distro. How's Perl doing? Parrot? Emacs (it's been official for a long time - vi won). Look at the absolute crap games. During lockdown, you'd be better off game-wise with a collection of old CDs and Win95 or XP.

      Because those 25-years-old retro games are still better than Linux games.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Sunday September 12 2021, @07:30PM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Sunday September 12 2021, @07:30PM (#1177275)

        Quoting a friend:

        Life is not worth living without SuperTuxKart

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 13 2021, @02:11PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday September 13 2021, @02:11PM (#1177412) Journal

        You've clearly never played TuxRacer. Penguins *can* fly [youtube.com].

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @04:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @04:54PM (#1177443)

        My old game collection runs better on Linux than it ever did on Windows.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:39PM (3 children)

      by Rich (945) on Sunday September 12 2021, @02:39PM (#1177227) Journal

      I continue to wonder how proprietary software even survives, let alone thrives.

      None of this hero stuff. Just follow the money. For the entrenched stuff at large clients, it's breadcrumbs off the monopolists plate. Everyone along the supply chain gets to modestly line their pockets if nothing changes. And they make sure it stays that way.

      When there is no supply chain with "system houses" or "certified qualitications" and that stuff, break-ins DO happen if enough grunt-work ends up in the FLOSS to make it bearable. Blender and Krita have made it in their narrow fields, and Altium have their pants filled to the belt with shit because of how KiCAD moves forward (as could be witnessed by some recent YT influencer stuff that was so super embarassing that it made clear they have no idea what to do).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:09PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:09PM (#1177245)

        and Altium have their pants filled to the belt with shit because of how KiCAD moves forward (as could be witnessed by some recent YT influencer stuff that was so super embarassing that it made clear they have no idea what to do)

        As someone a little bit out of the loop and doesn't know what you're talking about here, could you briefly summarize what you're referring to?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @06:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @06:09PM (#1177258)

          KiCAD is a FLOSS tool for PCB design. Altium is a commercial vendor of PCB design software.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:34PM

          by Rich (945) on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:34PM (#1177294) Journal

          As the other reply stated, this is about PCB design. Altium is sort of the major corporate choice, expensive. KiCAD is a free project and growing. They were able to get out of the "typical FLOSS crap" hole mostly due to CERN backing and with that momentum got a commercial entity backing and improving it. Not too long, the Altium user attitude about KiCAD was about "nice toy you have there, really great, but now we have to actually work, so let's all kick that in the garbage can and get back to business". In the meantime, KiCAD got good enough for about 98% of Altium jobs - but also vice versa. Much of the recent RasPi stuff is done on KiCAD, to give an example.

          So Altium see the writing on the wall, get into panic mode and pay a formerly somewhat respected influencer, which I intentionally don't name here, on YT to effectively produce commercials on how to start designing with Altium. They must also have made some "first fix is free" version to go with that. And that guy did some really simple stuff aimed at non-professionals. I just thought "how low can you go???". Without even considering the entirely senseless promotion of lock-in with subscription, you'd have done all of that in KiCAD in the time it would take for the Altium license agreement to scroll by. Pathetic.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:42PM (7 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 12 2021, @04:42PM (#1177240) Journal

      I continue to wonder how proprietary software even survives,

      No one wants to be responsible for anything. If Microsoft screws things up, and eats your data, you have someone to blame. If your own in-house software screws things up, then you are responsible. All the years of FUD from Microsoft makes that even worse. Add in the nonsense that if you make any changes to FOSS, you have to pass those changes back to the community. (FACT: you can do whatever the hell you want to do with FOSS, in-house. You don't have to contribute any of it back to FOSS, unless and until you distribute your in-house version to customers and/or the public.)

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:13PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @05:13PM (#1177246)

        If Microsoft screws things up, and eats your data, you have someone to blame.

        I agree with this as the management line of thought, but I always found it strange. If Microsoft eats my data, the usual response for almost anyone I know over the last 30 years has been "aw shit, Microsoft ate my data!" and that's it. It was never like there was anything to do about it beyond bitch and cry, not like Microsoft was going to do anything about it or provide any remediation.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:02PM

          by Dr Spin (5239) on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:02PM (#1177284)

          It was never like there was anything to do about it beyond bitch and cry, not like Microsoft was going to do anything about it or provide any remediation.

          Indeed

          You can be quietly confident that MS will continue to eat the rest of your data, without so much as a burp. It will probably leak it too.

          --
          Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Monday September 13 2021, @01:44AM (2 children)

          by sjames (2882) on Monday September 13 2021, @01:44AM (#1177348) Journal

          That's the odd thing about the corporate blame game. It starts out being vitally important that someone gets reamed, so the blame gets tossed around hot potato like. If the timer goes off, someone gets fired. Otherwise it keeps going until someone manages to toss it out the window. Then somehow, the never-ending thirst for blood goes away and it just isn't worth the trouble.

          Reason number 253 why I may laugh uncontrollably if you claim that the private sector is efficient and run by mature adults.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @03:52PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13 2021, @03:52PM (#1177439)

            Ah, so I suppose the brilliance of using Microsoft then is if you are the last one holding the potato, you can say "It's Microsoft's fault, they ate the data!"

            • (Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday September 14 2021, @02:05AM

              by sjames (2882) on Tuesday September 14 2021, @02:05AM (#1177578) Journal

              Exactly, toss it out the window in the direction of Redmond.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Dr Spin on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:04PM (1 child)

        by Dr Spin (5239) on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:04PM (#1177286)

        You don't have to contribute any of it back to FOSS, unless and until you distribute your in-house version to customers and/or the public.

        You don't have to.

        You don't have to contribute any of it back to FOSS, unless and until you distribute your in-house version to customers and/or the public.
        But then again, if you do, others will support it for free without you even lifting a finger (or, quite possible, even writing legible documentation).

        --
        Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:07PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:07PM (#1177287)

          And then the shipment of pink ponies arrives and everyone gets one. EVERYONE.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:47PM (#1177298)

      Some software is so dull, and/or so tedious to maintain, that literally no one would write such a thing unless paid to. When a business needs such a thing but does not have in-house programmers to make it in a cost-efficient way on their own, it is a market opportunity for a proprietary offering.

    • (Score: 2) by DECbot on Monday September 13 2021, @03:00PM

      by DECbot (832) on Monday September 13 2021, @03:00PM (#1177431) Journal

      The reason businesses haven't switched is liability. When your software breaks in a way that makes your business tank, you want to be able to go after the software vendor. That's the real reason ms and oracle have such lethal legal teams, to protect themselves from their customers. RedHat and Canonical provide some liability protection for businesses, but it is clear the they aren't responsible for upstream bugs--they will mitigate but most of the code is just curated, not produced by RH or Canonical.

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
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