PETALING JAYA: It was a small change, the deletion of a single sentence from the Open Source Master Plan. But the impact could be major to companies that supply software to the Government.

The master plan, launched in 2004, has remained unchanged until the deletion was noticed by industry pundits last week, who then alerted In.Tech.

In its original form, the plan said: "OSS procurement should be based on merits, value for money, transparency, security and interoperability, as well as in accordance with the Government procurement policies and procedures. In situations where the advantages and disadvantages of OSS and proprietary software are equal, preference shall be given to OSS."

The second sentence has been deleted, which implies that open-source software no longer has an advantage in government procurement.

Shift to neutral

The deletion appears to be in line with the Government's adoption of a neutral technology platform policy not favouring either open-source or proprietary software.

Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, announced last week that the Cabinet had decided that government procurement policies will now be based on merit and not platform preference.

"The Cabinet wants to encourage the further development of the local (information technology) ecosystem with focus on value creation and it is up to the market to decide which platform they choose," he said.

"There has been a lot of negative reaction towards open source (from the IT market) and that's why (choosing) the technology platform should be neutral."

Exactly when the deletion was made is unclear.

Attempts to get a statement from the Cyberjaya-based Open Source Competency Centre before press time was unsuccessful.

The centre advises government agencies on open-source policy, standards and guidelines, aside from other activities including workshops, conferences, and awareness-raising programmes, as well as providing technical support and training.

A victory?

OSS proponents were quick to play down the significance of the deletion.

Dinesh Nair, OSS advocate and QubeConnect chief software architect, said the deletion might not mean much. "Rarely, if ever, do two competing software solutions come out equal in a competitive evaluation of this nature. So it is only a theoretical possibility but unlikely in practice that the so-called ‘tiebreaker' favouring open-source software would ever be invoked," he said.

Dinesh suggested that vendors of proprietary software like Microsoft Corp may claim a victory over OSS advocates, "but it really is a trivial one."

A Microsoft Malaysia spokesman said the company is heartened that the Cabinet decided to adopt a neutral technology platform policy that does not favour either open source software or proprietary software.