Institute of Directors magazine pushes open source

March 25, 2003 at 22:24, by Geoff Richards

Director, the magazine of the UK's Institute of Directors (IoD), will tomorrow publish a special supplement aimed at presenting the virtues to business of open source software.

The supplement is being pushed by Open Forum Europe (OFE), an organisation whose aim is to get arguments about free software across to high-level management and government. OFE has got itself into the news before for publishing a report on how managers see free software, and they're bringing out a follow-up report as another part of tomorrow's ‘big push’.

Penguins: Tacky?

The Director supplement (available as a massive PDF here) actually seems to make a fairly good case, and if it gets in front of the right people perhaps it will help make a difference. The people who use it know that free software is ready for the job, at least for server applications, but this isn't filtering up to the people who make the big decisions. As Tom Nash of Director Publications says, “It's a classic case of perception lagging behind reality.”

So OFE and Director are making a good effort, but I have to wonder whether it was sensible to use the rather tacky picture for their supplement's front cover—Tux [?] may be beloved of Linux fans, but I can't imagine the average IT director buying from a penguin in a suit.

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