Open source software

In the context that Vietnam must respect copyright according to its commitments to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the use of open source software is considered by enterprises to be the optimal solution to save costs.

However, using open source software is not necessarily easy.

Saving solution

With about 4,000 computers using open source software, Saigon Thuong Tin Bank (Sacombank) has saved more than US $ 1 million in software license. However, recently, Sacombank decided to sign a contract to buy software copyright with Microsoft to standardize its information technology system.

Ms. Phan Bich Van, General Director of Sacombank, said that although the application of open source software can save a lot of investment costs, however, in the strategy of modernizing banking technology according to integration requirements indispensable commercial software. Therefore, to reconcile, Sacombank will use both open source software and commercial software in the near future.

Sacombank is one of the first enterprises to use open source software since 2004. The application is quite convenient because there are more and more solutions for users to choose. Especially the OpenOffice suite - Sun Microsystems' open source set of tools - 2.0.4 version that Sacombank put into use in June 2006 is very close to Microsoft Office software.

However, according to Ms. Van: ' Commercial software has many advanced features, is easy to use and has more stability than open source software. Therefore, we have to buy Microsoft software copyright to be more professional business and to avoid risks '.

Recently, Binh Duong Information Technology Joint Stock Company announced the program "Bring home office application for US $ 2" with open source software BIT OpenOffice to call users to use open source software. legal, cheap instead of buying Microsoft Office for a few hundred US dollars. However, most users are still indifferent to OpenOffice BIT, an open source software that is evaluated to function almost similar to other commercial software.

On the other hand, some people believe that, in order to apply open source software to the entire system, the board of directors must be a pioneer. Experiences from Sacombank show that if they want to apply open source software successfully, the leader must show his role and determination, pay close attention to the implementation stages and monitor the progress to timely direction.

In addition, there should be a team of IT experts with experience in open source software to support departments when needed. In the beginning, the application of open source software also affected the work of Sacombank because it had to gradually change the habits of using Microsoft Office by employees.

The biggest difficulty for open source software is that there are no direct support services from suppliers like when using commercial software, especially when applying Core Banking system which requires high integration. .

Barriers

According to calculations by the Ministry of Posts and Telematics, Vietnam currently has more than 2 million computers and if all use copyrighted software, it must spend at least 1 billion US dollars.

The advantage of open source software is that it is free to use, so the cost is low compared to commercial software. The use of open source software is also not dependent on any one provider. Thanks to the source code, the open source community has the ability to add and develop customized applications. Getting the source code also helps programmers create their own software.

However, the limitations of open source software are not yet supported by timely technical support. If the user has a problem, they can get the help of the open source community, but legally no one is obliged to provide support services for open source software like in school. Use commercial software.

On the other hand, support for integrating peripheral devices and professional applications on open source software is still limited. It is also important that the current open source operating systems are based on the Linux operating system, but the majority of users do not have knowledge of the operating system, even the majority of corporate network administrators are not well-informed. open source software. This leads to the need for retraining from scratch with no small cost.

Barriers to using open source software have made many businesses, agencies and individuals afraid. Therefore, finding a solution for this is very difficult, must be supported by the community and more convenient services.

According to many experts, Vietnam needs to encourage the development of open source software in schools, and research centers by open source software are effective teaching and research facilities. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage the creation of a number of specific IT products, suitable to domestic conditions and requirements based on open source software, especially for small businesses when The cost of copyrighted software is still quite high.

Currently in Vietnam, there are about 20 enterprises and individuals investing in open source software such as Vietkey Group, CMC, iNet Solutions ., but only spontaneously. For many years, ministries have also set up programs for developing and applying open source software but the problem so far has not been solved.