Switzerland mandates government agencies use open-source software
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The new law requires the use of open-source software and the publishing of new government code under open-source licenses

Switzerland has recently enacted a law requiring its government to use open-source software (OSS) and disclose the source code of any software developed by or for the public sector. According to ZDNet, this “public body, public code” approach makes government operations more transparent while increasing security and efficiency. Such a move would likely fail in the U.S. but is becoming increasingly common throughout Europe.

According to Switzerland’s new “Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks” (EMBAG), government agencies must use open-source software throughout the public sector.

The new law allows the codifies allowing Switzerland to release its software under OSS licenses. Not just that; it requires the source code be released that way “unless the rights of third parties or security-related reasons would exclude or restrict this.”

In addition to mandating the OSS code, EMBAG also requires Swiss government agencies to release non-personal and non-security-sensitive government data to the public. Calling this Open Government Data, this aspect of the new law contributes to a dual “open by default” approach that should allow for easier reuse of software and data while also making governance more transparent.

  • @model_tar_gzEnglish
    2•1 month ago

    Fuck does this mean LibreOffice might get actual sponsorship, funding, organizational support? And not be a buggy steaming pile of shit that crashes my computer every ten minutes???

    An engineer can dream, right?

    I hate spreadsheet and slide deck days. Please oh universe help me get back to my happy place: codeland.

    • @[email protected]English
      9•1 month ago

      I’ve never had LibreOffice crash my computer. Sure, it crashes occasionally, but it never takes anything else with it.

      If you’re putting enough stuff into a spreadsheet to crash it, it’s time to move to a real database.

      • @model_tar_gzEnglish
        -3•1 month ago

        Nah, I work with real big data all the time—I’m a ML engineer/DataSci depending on the day.

        It’s not crashing because I put a trivial couple hundred rows of data into a spreadsheet.

        It crashes because there’s some conflict between its Java core and the Linux kernel I’m running it on. It’s been like this across many versions; I keep everything updated, etc. Tried many versions of Java, and OpenJDK because FuckOracle. I’m no Java developer though, so Inwouldnt be able to contribute unless they want to refactor the entire core to Rust in which case I’d love to help.

        I send bug reports and it’s always just crickets—either they don’t know and don’t communicate that they don’t know, or don’t care, or more likely are just too busy with their realjobs to go on the hunt for a solution to a corner-case bug/crash scenario like mine probably is.

        I use office programs so infrequently that I just deal with it. But if I was like my directors and managers who live and die by office productivity apps then I’d have to abandon LibreOffice and go to the closed-source solution.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•1 month ago

          Agreed with “fuck Oracle,” but isn’t the JVM the same regardless of where you compile it, Linux or something else?

          Something seems off with the idea of a conflict between Linux and Java (and I am no fan of Java!)

          • @model_tar_gzEnglish
            1•1 month ago

            It’s supposed to be the same everywhere, yes, that’s the whole point. I’m just listing some of the things I’ve tried to find stability with the program on my machine. Maybe it’s not LO vs Linux kernel, but LO seems to work ok on an old MacBook I use sometimes. I don’t use Windows so I don’t have a user experience there to compare against.