Open-source, not Microsoft, best suited to Indonesia

Open-source, not Microsoft, best suited to Indonesia

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor, vmahmud@yahoo.com

There's been some interest recently regarding the news that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono invited Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to open a research center in Indonesia.

The world's top software company is well known for its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity suite that is the de facto industry standard for writing and sharing documents.

In addition, according to Thomas L. Friedman in his new book The World Is Flat, the Microsoft research center in Beijing, China, has proven to be an excellent breeding ground for new talent and innovation, making it a productive research arm for the U.S.-based company.

This success is due to the fact that Microsoft hired the best graduates from local universities, mostly through referrals of top professors in their fields, and fostered a culture of excellence and learning, making the center a highly desirable stop for a professional career.

A reference letter from the center is said to be worth its weight in gold and then some.

So having a research center is a great idea for Indonesia, right?

Not so fast, says Onno W. Purbo. In an interview with detik.com, one of Indonesia's top open source activists warned against using public funds to set up a research center that would ultimately profit the software maker. This then raises the question, who will benefit the most out of this potential partnership?

The answer can be seen in the proprietary, not to mention costly, nature of Microsoft software. With prices of computer components continually falling, Microsoft Windows remains a major cost when buying a new PC.

And with police raids on software pirates and their users becoming fashionable, it would indeed be advisable to have a licensed operating system and applications. But Microsoft Office 2004 often costs as much as the computer itself!

Local software developers may be able to benefit from a Microsoft research center, but considering the startup costs involved -- the various licenses for Microsoft server software, databases, and others -- perhaps only a select few will be able to profit from this relationship.

So what about open source? It is free. Free to download, free to use (depending on which Linux distribution you choose) and free to customize for your home and business.

Practically everyone can obtain tools to make quality software, with no hassles, no registration processes or serial number verifications. And their products use low cost, industry standard frameworks such as Java, PHP or MySQL, making the final price of their software just as reasonable for their clients.

Of course, nothing is free nowadays. Some Linux distributions require license fees but considering the quality of their products, and their low cost, a small investment for computerizing your home or business should be worthwhile.

As for after-sales service, many of the top Linux distributions now offer corporate support. Industry titan Novell, for example, offers two Linux systems with their Novel Linux Desktop 9 and SUSE. Leading Linux company Red Hat just recently appointed Computrade Technology International (CTI) as its sole distributor in Indonesia, offering not only joint marketing, sales enablement and customized solutions, but also local customer support.

Major companies such as IBM and Oracle also offer Linux support for their applications, allowing customers to find the best possible industry solution while running low-cost desktops that use open-standard web-based technology to access them.

And of course, considering the plethora of viruses, Internet worms and spyware that affect Microsoft computers worldwide, some are getting weary of powering up their PCs online.

The government should provide more support to its Indonesia Goes Open Source (IGOS) program to move this country forward. Windows and Linux are basically the same animal: they are conduits for accessing the Internet, drafting documents, or playing games.

It does not matter what type of application you use or what system you install, in the end, computers are tools for you to work with. We should not be inflexible in learning new things.

As governments overseas are switching over to Linux -- the city of Vienna, Austria being the latest convert -- Indonesia should back away from a relationship with a costly piece of software that offers little benefit over viable open-source alternatives.

Our minds and data files should be open to new innovations and changes in the future, and not be dictated by a single company lead by the richest man in the world.