New push for open-source software

Open-source software may be one of the biggest issues facing the federal government these days, as big as cybersecurity protection and the push to keep expenses down. To take advantage of this, more than 50 organizations, including some of the biggest names in IT, are banding together to form an organization called Open Source for America to push the federal government in that direction.

Federal agencies are already using open-source software, but this new organization wants to take government further into a new and cost-efficient arena.

"Most every federal agency does have open source, but essentially it's a paradigm change," Tom Rabon, executive vice president for corporate affairs at Red Hat, told InfoWorld.

The immediate target of this new organization is to educate federal decision makers about the importance of open source and encouraging government IT managers to give equal priority to open source software. It's quite remarkable that some of the biggest software makers are now pushing open source because they see it as a necessity for the federal government and a good deal for IT budgets, not to mention their products.

For more on open source:
- check out this InfoWorld article