In recent years, there have been increasing applications of open source SW to a large scale of public institution projects in South Korea. This is a result of MIC(Ministry of Information and Communication)'s campaign to encourage the use of Open source SW. However, how much could Open source SW be utilized?

The biggest obstacle to the popular utilization of Open source SW is in a clear fact that there is few market to which it could be applied. Last year, some projects of public institutions, such as NEIS(National Education Information System) of MOE(Ministry of Education), KMA(Korea Meteorological Administration), the Second NCIA(National Computing & Information Resources Administration), and MOGAHA(Ministry of Government Administration & Home Affairs), brought in Linux. But, the introduction of Open source SW precisely ends here. It is only applied to public projects that produce relatively lower profits. It is still far from spreading to private companies.

"Bringing Linux can reduce 50-60 % of introductory cost than Unix or Window Server OS," a government official said. "But, that reduction is so small that it is unreasonable to say that it effects the reduction of cost. In fact, we spend the most part of our project budget on HW. Open source SW takes very small portion of the budget."

For the diffusion of market and the increase of profit, it is as plain as a pikestaff to go into the market for private companies. In increasing a margin of profit, private sector is superior to public institution. Moreover, if private sector makes use of Open source SW, the problem of compatibility of Open source SW could be solved in the early stage.

Limited introduction of Open source SW to public projects
The most part of Open source SW, which is introduced into public projects, is Linux as sever OS. Due to the problem of compatibility, originally scheduled Open source SW to bring in is often changed.

In fact, the Second NCIA replaced Linux with Unix because of the problem of compatibility between service desk AP server and application SW. This sort of case is not rare in public projects.

An officer of the Second NCIA said, "the introduction of Open source SW is much more difficult than the one of commercial SW. If a new equipment is introduced, there would be no driver suitable for that equipment. In this occasion, we often develop it by ourselves. But, due to the limit of time and budget, we often change the object to which Open source SW is applied. IT industry must be much prepared for technological supports to solve this problem."

Moreover, the scope of application of Open source SW in public institutions is limited to server OS due to those limits of technology and product maturity. According to an officer of MIC, "only 20% of the whole project takes Open source SW." This reflects the reluctance to introduce Open source SW for major tasks that require stability and extensibility.

Possibility and the improvement of understanding are positive
Although it is undeniable that market circumstance is poor, possibility is not as poor as the market circumstance. As Linux is introduced into various public institutions, the understanding of the need to introduce Open source SW is gradually diffused. Choi Woo-Hyuck, a director of the Second NCIA, said, "the difficulty at the level of introduction is to some degree settled by after-technological-support and maintenance, so that the bias for technological support is now being solved. For the problem of security, Linux is better than Unix. It has less security patches than Unix."

Major IT vendors actively support Open source SW as well. IBM(for hardware) and Oracle(for application) actively sell their hardware and DBMS loaded with Linux. Sun and HP have the same plan with IBM and Oracle. CA and SAP lead to support Linux as well. Large size SIs, such as Posdata, SK C&C, Samsung SDS, and LG CNS, also participate in the trend by establishing exclusive teams for Linux.

Unlike the past, the atmosphere becomes friendly as various attempts and projects are being made. Now, it is the time to unite government policies and business efforts to make Open source SW active.

Some argues that government intervention to Open source SW is to violate fair transactions. Special measures to achieve the goal of state policy, however, are allowed in domestic/international laws. From now on, the development of application SW, such as Linux for desktop and Office, which hasn’t been available, must be pursued.

Kim Ki-Chang, a professor of Korea University, said, "here must be an integrated communication site to explain main Linux editions, to compare the function of Open Office with commercial programs, and to clearly guide download links. This must have been done by KIPA(Korea SW Industry Promotion Agency)."

IT industry also needs to develop technologies solving the problem of compatibility and stability, to support those efforts, and to invent various application SW. "In the last year, the scale of SI business was bigger than OS or Solution. It’s true that the introduction of government system does not prevent the fall of profitability. The most primary project is to make SW environments in which users can safely utilize. The development of SW and policy considering users of Linux and Unix has to precede in a long view, rather than subjecting to particular SW that may be much efficient for the present use," Kim Soo-Jin, an executive director of Haansoft Inc., said.

The cooperation between government and IT industry needed to relax the limit of practical use……
In sum, domestic Open source SW market has weakness that, despite its scale, server sector in which HW and SW are combined is far from being popular. Moreover, Open source SW project, led by KIPA and government, operates like a government branch depending on government policy. Because its main customer is government and public institutions, the domestic Open source SW market is still in the early stage. After all, various revenue-generating models and approaches of individual companies to popularize are the first step for the widespread use of Linux.

For this, domestic Open source SW communities play an important role as well. Although the participation to develop Open source SW is not high, there is a high possibility that domestic users lead the development of Open source SW by downloading and utilizing it. Korea's highest rate of internet use in the world supports that possibility.

One of the main philosophies of Open source SW would be participation and share. For this, however, government policy and the will of business must precede. And the cooperation between government and IT industry must be balanced. Government provides more substantial policies, like the use of Linux PC, and IT industry has to promote its ability to stand on its own through more active participation in market, rather than depending on government policies. This is not easy. But, to change the perception of society that Open source SW is not credible is the task of government and IT industry, not of consumers.