Norway, Opera at open-source odds?

Norway made a bold statement against Microsoft this week without naming the company when the country's minister for modernization, Morton Andreas Meyer, pledged (according to one blog and subsequent news reports) that "proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government." For example, Norway will be reconsidering its use of the "spreadsheet almost everyone uses."

Since Norway is famous in software circles for second-tier browser provider Opera, one Opera antagonist in the open source community seized on the announcement to tweak the Oslo company for its prospects selling proprietary software under the new policy.

"Since I have so many wonderful Opera-using readers, I thought I'd ask them what they think it means for Opera Software and the Opera Web brower that Norway seems to be moving towards open source," wrote Mozilla Foundation staffer Asa Dotzler in his blog.

Controversy subsequently erupted in Dotzler's blog and elsewhere over whether Norway is embracing open source software, which would be bad for Opera, or open standards, which Opera is noted for supporting.

"The minister, Meyer, addresses two distinct issues," said Opera CTO Hakon Lie in an interview. "He wants the government to use open standards and to consider open source. The use of open standards in the government is obviously good for Opera; open standards is what we do best. I also think it's great that Meyer insists that all parts of the government consider how OSS can be used. While Opera is not open source in itself, we offer the best browser for GNU/Linux systems. We welcome Meyer's initiative: It will lead to more competition in an area that has been stuck in Microsoft's ice age for too long."