SAFI Technologies not cleansing Niue of open source

ComputerWorld claimed this week that SAFI Technologies would be cleansing the island of Niue of open source. Those claims have however been discredited by Tim Johnson, Managing Director of SAFI Technologies.

ComputerWorld claimed that "A Christchurch software developer has been charged with relieving the Niue government of its open source systems and replacing them with a Microsoft-based solution after the island encountered ongoing service and support issues." However, Tim Johnson says that "SAFI Technologies has never stated that it is replacing ANY open source systems as part of this project."

Johnson points out that Niue has no current Intranet solution, and therefore it would be impossible for SAFI to replace a system, open source or otherwise. Johnson continues to say that "SAFI Technologies has never stated that this project is here to 'cleanse', 'purge', 'wipe out', 'relieve' or 'replace' open source systems."

It appears that the assertion that Microsoft products are replacing open source products is incorrect, as in the words of Johnson "The irony is that there is no current, existing Intranet system in place in the Niue Goverment. This cannot be stressed enough. Clearly, if no system exists, we are quite unable to replace it - open source or not."

The NZOSS is calling on ComputerWorld to publish a correction to the article that correctly identifies that SAFI Technologies are not in fact removing any open source software.