When buying software and computer systems, Pugh said, public sector culture weighs against anything innovative and new, even if it costs less than alternatives. "The big firm is a reassurance to the procurer," Pugh said. "This is a culture of 'mind your back, don't do anything wrong, don't take risks'. People's decisions are influenced by their ignorance and fears, and that beats a steady trail to the Microsoft office." Governments also tend to find IT outsourcing deals attractive, with the result that the procurement decision is taken out of their hands, Pugh said. Weighing in favour of open source, however, is the extreme transparency of the government procurement process, which allows any member of the public to look up how public money is being spent. Pugh urged open-source companies to keep an eye on how software was being procured, and to complain if they felt they were being unfairly kept out of the process. "The open-source community needs to embark on a process of charm and harrying. Charming is worthwhile, but you also should follow the auditor trail of procurement," he said. "In many cases the Linux community will have valid reasons to complain in cases where they are excluded." Other factors working in favour of Linux and other open-source software, said the MP, include the high quality, security and relative freedom from viruses of the software, and the ability of administrators to exercise complete control over what users are doing on Linux desktops. Price is also a major issue, Pugh said. "In a tender evaluation, if the price disparities are there, and they may be huge in many cases, people need to be reasonably cautious about turning (an open-source bid) down."
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