Open Source inroads in UK public sector
I arrived back from Cambridge Sunday, and pretty much collapsed from exhaustion. Well, okay, that was a bit drama-queeny, but I was completely knackered. I’m still trying to catch up with email, so sorry to those of you who’ve emailed me recently (Ivan, Tamsin, Philippa, Ana, and many others—I’ve 94 emails in my inbox waiting to be dealt with). I will reply soon.
Anyway, Kris and Ivan both sent me related bits of information today (oh, actually yesterday as it’s already tomorrow).
First, from Ivan: The Financial Times has a nice piece about UK local authorities moving to open source: Threat to Microsoft as local authorities plan to use free open source software.
Microsoft faces a serious threat to its UK public sector monopoly from plans by local authorities to increase their use of open source software, a survey commissioned by the FT has found.
More than 60 per cent said they intended to increase their use of open source software, which is free or much cheaper than Microsoft’s products. More than three-quarters using it plan to expand their use over the next three years, while two out of five who do not yet use it plan to do so.
The survey of nearly 100 local authorities and public bodies comes as the new government prepares to announce plans to encourage more take-up of open source in the public sector, which spent £12.4bn on information technology in 2003-04.
In a similar vein, Kris pointed out Slashdot’s story: UK Schools Told to Dump Microsoft, which is actually about a story in the TES which I had managed to notice on Sunday while hanging around in train stations: Ditching Microsoft can save millions.
Primary schools could cut their computer costs by nearly half if they stopped buying, operating and supporting products from the world’s largest software company, government research has found.
