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submitted 5 months ago by tek@calckey.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Switzerland mandates all software developed for the government be open sourced

Switzerland mandates software source code disclosure for public sector: A legal milestone

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/new-open-source-law-switzerland

@technology@lemmy.world

#tech #libre

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[-] loics2@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago

Nice, so everyone will see the shitty code used by the administration

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[-] xilona@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago

And still I wonder why almost all public institutions use Micro$oft & Co...

Nothing to see here, Same BS, Laws that do nothing, See GDPR,

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[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

I’m curious if this also applies to military or intelligence software. I’m guessing at the very least software embedded in weapons systems is not included. If I understood the article correctly there were some exemptions for security reasons.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

after the recent microsoft hacks this is probably a good call

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[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

I wonder how this will impact us infrastructure types. I am sure there must have been an exception to the rule at least once in my career but I can't recall any, code I have made for all governments has been open source and if you lost it somehow I would just email it.

My only concern would be the systems that my code runs on top of won't be willing to share. It is one thing to demand it from me, another to demand it from Siemens. Then you add in very low level code for individual devices such as VFDs

I guess the nightmare would be that PLC/DCS/VFD makers would basically be blacklisted and I would have to work around that fact.

[-] AProfessional@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

My only concern would be the systems that my code runs on top of won’t be willing to share. It is one thing to demand it from me, another to demand it from Siemens. Then you add in very low level code for individual devices such as VFDs

It is about code they pay to create...

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Hmm seems to be pretty easy to get around the rule.

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[-] maxinstuff@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

This doesn’t seem like a big deal?

The fact the code is open sourced is much less significant than the fact now the Swiss government will need to negotiate complete ownership of any software they commission.

That’s going to make things more expensive for them, and limit the vendors prepared to work with them.

Their systems, their call 🤷‍♂️

[-] fungos@lemmy.eco.br 8 points 5 months ago

No, that is counter intuitive. It may appear more expensive at first, but on the long run it is a lot more cheaper. It avoid vendor lock-in, recurring increase of dev costs and licensing and lots of other plagues of closed proprietary development like blackbox development and justification of hidden complexity as a driving factor on costs. I worked with legacy closed proprietary sw development and lock-in combined with legacy complexity made man-hour costs exorbitant. These are partially solved by open-sourcing, as kicking out a team and putting a new one is easier, but most importantly transparency as a driving factor on quality of development.

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

At least for ASTRA, for software developed in their projects that's already the case. Frameworks etc. used are not covered, but all source code for PLC and SCADA are theirs and you're required to hand over all code as part of documentation at the end. As a zip on a USB key, never to be looked at again.

[-] uis@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

the fact now the Swiss government will need to negotiate complete ownership of any software they commission.

I can't find it

[-] grid11@lemy.nl 4 points 5 months ago

That's disappointing, they should mandate obligatory WhatsApp use country wide.

[-] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 6 points 5 months ago

please tell me this is a joke

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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
1929 points (100.0% liked)

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