MANILA — Familiar battle lines are being drawn over pending legslation mandating free and open source (FOSS) software for government and educational use in the Philippines.
While Microsoft and the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) are opposing the controversial free and open source software (FOSS) act (House Bill 1716) filed in the Philippine Congress, Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to support the bill.
In an exclusive interview with Computerworld Philippines, Matt Thompson, Sun’s senior director for Technology Outreach & Sun Developer Network group, announced plans to support the pending FOSS bill in Congress, as part of Sun’s commitment to drive network participation through open source.
“I would certainly work with our local field (SunPhil) here to put some support behind something like this. There is no reason we wouldn’t. I’m just wasn’t aware of it before,” Thompson said, referring to the FOSS bill filed in congress last September 2006 by Rep. Teodoro Casi