Not free of charge, but independent!

Both the new federal government and federal states such as Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein have meanwhile enshrined the preferred use of open source software or its systematic consideration in IT selection processes in their respective coalition agreements, or have realigned their government actions in this direction.

Nevertheless, the reasons for using open source vary widely. Governments and the public sector are increasingly assuming that open source software will make them more independent of individual providers and thus more sovereign. At the same time, they want to reduce the maintenance and servicing costs of their IT system landscape and make the use of taxpayers' money more transparent. Commercial enterprises sometimes use open source software because they expect to achieve significant cost savings.

Especially in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the engine of Western economies, it continues to happen that even relevant and often very knowledgeable decision-makers and advocates in the companies refer to open source software as free. Although this assumption is not correct, it is often decisive for the decision for open source. The installation, customization, enhancement, maintenance and use of such software can cost money. In contrast to proprietary software, there are usually no license costs as an initial investment when using open source.

Besides, it happens that the true advantages of open source are pushed into the background. Among other things, it enables a comparatively simple change of service providers as well as the involvement of additional actors, i.e., switching costs are reduced and flexibility is increased. Transparent use of taxpayers' money may generate interest in participation among knowledgeable third parties and volunteers. This can sometimes set standards for an entire industry and society. In addition, by using open source software, organizations make themselves less susceptible to blackmail.

This means that open software is particularly useful for an organization when digitization and digital sovereignty, as well as conceptual independence from individual providers, are both a guiding principle for action and a development perspective. Use therefore makes sense above all when companies and the public sector want to implement digitization under their own steam or with the help of appropriate service providers in order to design their own digital infrastructure and processes. At the same time, a positive contribution can be made to social development.

Sustainability

Incidentally, open source is also an effective pillar for sustainable structures. With its help, redundancy and waste of resources can be avoided. Last but not least, the systematic use, favoring and development of open source software is also a promotional and significant sustainability criterion of value for the private and public sectors that should not be underestimated.

Wherever software switching costs are high or available alternatives are not numerous, open source ensures functionally sustainable competition and prevents proprietary providers from spiraling out of control. This has possibly likewise led to the fact that market-dominating closed desktop operating systems or operational application systems became qualitatively better. Open source software is therefore not about free riderism or an esoteric cult. It is about sustainability, independence, flexibility and sovereignty.