TechBlog staff. 01 April 2016, 8:00 am

In a surprise move, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) announced this morning that it would now mandatorily require all software procured by all NZ government agencies to be free and open source, with immediate effect.

The move appears to be an extension of the D5 Charter, signed in late 2014 by the Minister of Internal Affairs Hon Peter Dunne. That agreement called for participant countries to consider open source to provide shareable software between governments.

As well as compulsory free and open source software for future software procurement, the new policy also requires that all non-open source software currently used within government be replaced by open source options within three years.

The new policy is likely to lead to significant changes, with all govt desktops and laptops scheduled to be transitioned from Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X to Linux or FreeBSD by April 1, 2017. MBIE spokesperson Alison Prilfol said that while they would prefer to move faster, there was disagreement on whether to standardise around Ubuntu or Mint and it was expected to take some time to resolve it.

When asked whether mandating open source was compatible with trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, Ms Prilfool noted that New Zealand's position on the TPP was also up for review. "It's fair to say that if there is an incompatibility between this policy and TPP, we will likely withdraw from TPP", Prilfool said.

Open Source advocate David Lane couldn't be reached for comment, but was last seen doing something resembling an irish jig down Cashel Street in Christchurch.

Further details are expected before 12pm today.

[You guessed it, the date of this one had something to do with its content ;). It's after 12pm on April 1 now, but we'll leave this up for prosperity]