Reported in the Irish Times for 2011-02-18:
Computer services board drops Microsoft
THE LOCAL Government Computer Service Board, a flagship Microsoft client, is moving to open-source software after nearly 10 years of allegiance.
Assistant director Tim Willoughby is quoted as giving several reasons for the move:
- Cost: budgets are being cut, and the annual payment for the Software Assurance scheme is too high: ‘We can’t afford it.’
- No vendor lock-in: ‘We don’t want our data to be stuck in old infrastructure where we have to pay somebody to get it out.’
- Openness: ‘We want to approach them with open technologies and open standards.’
The article claims: Any new IT projects will use open source software, a process already under way.
The move is described in terms of ‘Open Source’ rather than ‘Free Software’, but this is a very significant announcement, and very welcome. It is particularly encouraging that the freedoms of Free Software play a large part in the arguments made by the LGCSB.