This doesn't require all software used by Switzerland to be open source. Per the article:
> This new law requires all public bodies to disclose the source code of software developed by or for them unless third-party rights or security concerns prevent it. This "public money, public code" approach aims to enhance government operations' transparency, security, and efficiency.
Hopefully this also introduces standardized auditing of open sourced packages. Just because something is open sourced, doesn’t mean it’s altruistic and not susceptible to malicious actors submitting seemingly innocuous code that gives bad actors a back door.
The xz fiasco earlier this year should encourage every organization to conduct such audits. A code smell could and should be enough for packages to not be supported.
Reading the sourced link, it's currently only for federal government institutions, a lot of things, like the "DMV", or social services, are still the domain of the Kantons (equivalent to a US state).
So it's "all" but in a different context to what you might understand as "all". ;)
For the untested in this subject you’ve got to research about Brazil’s effort to use as much open source as they can at the state level. They’ve been doing so for nearly 20 years.
Yet the Brazilian government releases little of its own code publicly. I'm still waiting for the ballot machine code.
Brazilian government's relation with open technology is such a weird thing. Lula and Dilma government were huge sponsors of free software conferences like FISL, with several ministries and agencies with huge booths and whatnot - but most of their actual technical side was just "we use libre office or Zimbra or whatever". All talk, no action.
One thing that specially made me angry was the lack of commitment with open data. The post office was eager to sponsor conferences, but kept zip code data under lock and key, only allowing a CAPTCHAd query tool for people, and selling API access to companies for huge prices. This was actually only fixed... during the right wing governments that followed (can't remember if Temer or Bolsonaro).
Good ideas finally need government backing and adoption to scale and sustain. OSS has been facing tough times since cloud providers like AWS came in. Moves like this will help keep the open source spirit alive. Really proud to see this and hope more governments go this way.
Sounds great. Except that as a company, you can now only deliver services to this government. No products, since you will lose your competitive advantage. This is a big disadvantage for for instance startups that target this market.
Readit News
> This new law requires all public bodies to disclose the source code of software developed by or for them unless third-party rights or security concerns prevent it. This "public money, public code" approach aims to enhance government operations' transparency, security, and efficiency.
Governments not knowing what their software is doing is a recipe for chaos.
Hopefully this also leads to more audits of said code.
The xz fiasco earlier this year should encourage every organization to conduct such audits. A code smell could and should be enough for packages to not be supported.
So it's "all" but in a different context to what you might understand as "all". ;)
https://opensource.com/government/12/8/brazil-forefront-open...
Brazilian government's relation with open technology is such a weird thing. Lula and Dilma government were huge sponsors of free software conferences like FISL, with several ministries and agencies with huge booths and whatnot - but most of their actual technical side was just "we use libre office or Zimbra or whatever". All talk, no action.
One thing that specially made me angry was the lack of commitment with open data. The post office was eager to sponsor conferences, but kept zip code data under lock and key, only allowing a CAPTCHAd query tool for people, and selling API access to companies for huge prices. This was actually only fixed... during the right wing governments that followed (can't remember if Temer or Bolsonaro).
Don't target that market if you don't like the terms. Someone else will. I will.
Some more discussion earlier this month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40852084