U.K. urged to hold back on open source
C|Net | at | by Mike
A U.K. tech industry body has urged the U.K. government to show restraint in its use of open-source software, particularly software covered by the General Public License. Intellect, which is backed by Microsoft, IBM, Intel, BAE Systems and other high-tech heavyweights, said that the requirement of open-source licenses for software funded by the government could have a negative impact on competition for contracts, on the quality of the resulting software and even on the confidentiality of government departments.
In particular, it recommended that the government drop the GNU General Public License (GPL), the license upon which the GNU/Linux operating system is based, from its list of acceptable default licenses for government-funded software. It also urged agencies to, in general, steer clear of the GPL.