Survey: What Do Federal Government Users Want 

A few weeks ago, we exchanged correspondence with a government subscriber who noted his interest in Open Source software.  Shortly after that we realized we were speaking at a Federal Government Conference in Washington, D.C. (see www.iibt.org) and that, with the conference organizers’ cooperation, we might find out a little more about what government organizations think about open source and the office suite packages they’re using (and plan to use in the future).  This seemed appropriate since many of the speakers were government managers, reporting on government technology projects-in-progress.

Although there were only 30 survey participants, they represent departments and agencies with more than 100,000 employees, so these results, while not projectible, are very interesting.  The participants were federal government managers and professionals.

Current operating system platforms for office desktops

We quickly discovered that everyone currently uses Windows (100%), but about 10% of participants also had users of UNIX, Linux and Macintosh operating systems.

Current Office Suite

Nearly everyone (twenty-eight of the thirty participants or 93%) use Microsoft Office. Twenty-one of them (70%) use it exclusively.

Nine organizations (30%) use other products, often in combination with Microsoft Office, including Corel WordPerfect (3 user organizations), Lotus SmartSuite (4), Sun StarOffice (1), and a custom software product. Interestingly, penetration rates of these alternative products can be high, averaging 45%.

Considering using different Office software

We asked survey participants whether they were considering other Office software and why.

	Two said they were looking because the current product is too expensive to buy or license.
	Three said their current product is too expensive to support.
	Four said they would prefer a simpler, lighter-weight product.

We note that 73% of the participants weren’t looking for other software – but 27% were.  Of the 73%, more than half nevertheless had comments about Open Source or Linux, so we sense a certain ambiguity, even here.

What appeals about the idea of Open Source Software (e.g., Linux)

Survey participants seem to like the availability of Source Code (10 participants, 33% of those surveyed) and Lower Cost (6 participants, 20%) most.  The idea of having many independent developers working on the code was also popular (5 participants, 16%).

But we’d need this to change to Linux

We asked participants what they’d need to consider changing to Linux. Security concerns and Better Support were at the top of the requirements list, with 7 votes each (23% of participants).   Having a single, big software vendor to deal with followed with 6 votes (20%) and better software selection at 5 votes (17%).  Being able to obtain the same software currently in use for the Linux platform got 4 votes (13%).

Users also noted that they lacked confidence that Linux would be updated on a timely basis in a single form. (Editorial Note:  they mean no forking.)  This got two votes (7%).

In Summary

Today, the federal government customer desktop environment, as reflected in this summary, is very clearly Windows and nearly as clearly Microsoft Office Suite.

There is more interest in alternative platforms and applications than we expected to find.  We think that discovering that 27% of the surveyed group were considering alternatives – and 59% of the rest were obviously having some questions and thoughts about it – sounds like a marketplace that will consider new ideas, both from its current vendors, and from new ones that can provide good answers to real questions about the cost of acquiring and supporting the most pervasive application in any organization.

Remember to take all this in the context of a government market which is being increasingly exposed to Linux and Open Source.  For example

	Ralph Nader has recently demanded (idiotically) that the Director of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) buy Linux and Open Source operating systems and applications to break monopoly practices.  (You can see my comments on my weblog at http://amywohl.weblogger.com/2002/06/06.)
	Microsoft has been complaining about the government’s interest in Open Source (see http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/06/11/1423244.shtml?tid=11 for access to both the government sponsored MITRE study on government use of Open Source and the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution study against government use of Open Source.
	For even more fun – if you have the time and you’re into this sort of dissection, read The Register article nastily taking apart the de Tocqueville study at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25659.html.

If you’re wondering why Microsoft might be feeling defensive, look to the news.  The German government and IBM have recently announced a program to use Linux for future implementations and the Finnish legislature has just announced that its government will use Linux.  (No surprises here, Linus Torvalds is from Finland.)

No IT tool or application is ever the magic bullet that is the answer to every problem, but every few years something comes along that looks hopeful.  Right now, some folks are hoping that’s Linux.  It’s getting a lot of attention for many reasons and soon (as always), we’ll figure out what’s it’s best for and things will simmer down a bit – or we’ll decide it really is the Next Big Thing – ready for its 15 minutes in the spotlight.

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