LV: Government considers switching to open source
Latvia will study if it can cut costs by increasing its use of open source software, AFP reported last Thursday.
An IT trade group earlier that week protested the exact wording of the government plan, which singles out the proprietary software vendor Microsoft.
Latvia's Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis on 12 October asked Edgars Zalans, the Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, to study the move to open source. The resolution calls on the government to move the public administrations completely or in part to operating systems and software "not produced by the US Microsoft Corporation".
The plan is meant to evaluate what possibility exists to use open source software, the Internet news site The Baltic Course last Friday confirmed, quoting spokeswoman Liga Krapane. "It's done with just one goal - to save some money," she told the news web site.
The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (Litka) last week Wednesday published an open letter of protest over the resolution. "The state should not start fighting Microsoft Corporation or any other company, but rather should use IT to raise government efficiency."
More information:
AFP news item(in Sydney Morning Herald)
AFP news item (in Le Figaro, in French)
Litka statement (in Latvian)
Times LV news item (in Latvian)
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