SYDNEY, Australia -- 20 August 2002 -- The Australian UNIX and Open Systems User Group (AUUG, Inc.) today congratulated the Government sector on recent progress in the adoption of Open Source and called for the accelerated adoption of Open Standards based Open Source solutions such as Linux and BSD within departments and agencies. The call follows two recent significant Open Source wins.  The first a month ago, when the key federal government department CentreLink, the world's twelfth largest processing organisation, announced that it had established a world class Linux Laboratory in collaboration with IBM to reduce costs and raise the flexibility of the agency's IT systems. The second came last week, when the Federal Department of Veterans' Affairs announced that it is moving file and print services for all branch offices to an IBM zSeries mainframe running Linux.

"It's clear that IT departments within government agencies are being attracted to Open Source software such as Linux," says Gordon Hubbard, AUUG Inc. Press Secretary.  "What we'd like to see now is a commitment within government that actively supports and encourages the use of Linux and other Open Source systems to reduce licensing fees, thus saving money, and to provide open, stable and secure government IT infrastructure solutions."

AUUG is calling on the Government sector to review all areas of IT procurement and information standards to ensure that there is no bias against Open Standards based Open Source solutions. This would allow government IT managers to calculate the true ROI for each software acquisition and deployment  - enabling the comparison of open and closed solutions on an equal footing.  A comparison that AUUG believes Open Source will win. Ultimately delivering major savings to Australian tax payers.

In addition to ROI issues Open Standards based systems provide Open file formats and interfaces, thus increase the accessibility of Government information and services to all citizens without discrimination.

"We are asking for a level playing field which will empower government IT managers to consider all of the options when considering server operating environments", said Hubbard. The AUUG call follows recent announcements by government bodies in Germany, France, Taiwan and Peru to variously endorse and encourage the use of open source solutions within their agencies.

AUUG's call comes ahead of its annual national conference, to be held in Melbourne from 1-6 September 2002.  Themed "Measure, Monitor, Control", the conference will focus on Security, Network Monitoring, Open Source and Business, Large Scale System Management and Wireless Networking. The conference will also see the presentation of the inaugural Australian Open Source Awards to encourage and recognise the excellence and dedication of Australians contributing in the Open Source arena. For conference information and registration details visit http://classic.auug.org.au/conf/auug2002/.

About AUUG Incorporated
AUUG Inc. is the Australian UNIX and Open Systems User Group, a professional association for end users, corporations, developers and vendors that promotes UNIX® and related systems, including Linux and BSD.  Dating from 1975, AUUG is a national body with chapters that organize local activities in most capital cities.

Visit http://classic.auug.org.au/

Press Contact
Gordon Hubbard
Treasurer and Press Secretary, AUUG Inc.
<Gordon.Hubbard@auug.org.au>
Tel: 02 9659 9590

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