Open source software not a threat to Microsoft

The possible inclination of Cebu market to adopt open source software has not threatened software giant Microsoft Philippines, saying using such is always the choice of the consumers.

Microsoft Philippines has established its physical office in Cebu, serving as headquarters in Southern Philippines market. The office was opened three months ago.

Microsoft Southern Philippines sales operations director Boy Bawal, dismissed impressions that the Bill Gates led company is strengthening its ground to control the possibility of consumers to shift into open source software, which is available for free.

"I believe that using software is always a choice, if open source is good for their businesses [consumers/users], its no problem with us," Bawal said.

A growing number of Cebuano Information Technology (IT) users are considering shifting in using open source software, from expensive Microsoft developed software.

In fact, last year some Internet Café owners entertained possibilities to use the Open Source or Linux developed OS (Operating System), avoiding the costly license fee charge by Microsoft.

The Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) now steadily gaining ground among a broad range of information and communications technology (ICT) consumers - from home users and barangay, schools to large corporate enterprises - who are looking for alternatives to the expensive, overbearing and restrictive products of proprietary software monopolies like Microsoft, Unix, and Adobe, among others.

According to Bawal, Microsoft's entry to Cebu, and the Southern Philippine market is mainly to provide easy access of support to consumers in the region, as it has become a significant market, and a revenue contributor for the company. Not because, the company is alarmed of the growing number of users ready to jump into free-of-charge software products in the open source.

Currently, there is a pending Bill in the Congress crafted by Party List Bayan Muna representative Teodoro Casiño to push the use of FOSS in all government agencies and which encourages the use and development of FOSS in the private and public sectors.

According to Casiño, unlike proprietary software, FOSS is cheap (in fact, most FOSS are distributed gratis to the public by their own developers and can be freely distributed), flexible and development-friendly (FOSS source codes are accessible to consumers who may study, modify and customize the software), interoperable (FOSS adhere to open standards and are meant to work across various platforms and protocols) and safe (the opening of the source codes and the use of open standards have allowed hundreds of thousands of users around the globe to serve as a virtual research and development team, providing patches and solutions to bugs and glitches in real time over the internet).

If the bill will be eventually passed into law, it is expected to provide benefits to the Philippines by: (1) Guarding the people's tight to access public informations (2) Lowering the overall cost of ICT in the public and private sectors by reducing the country's dependence on proprietary software and computer applications; (3) Making IT more accessible to a greater number of users; (4) Unlocking the potential and encouraging the development of a self-reliant, genuinely Filipino IT industry; and, (5) Providing greater security for highly sensitive government and private information systems.