UK MP wants government to move from Microsoft to open source computing

UK cabinet office minister Francis Maude, MP, plans to transition the UK government's IT to open source software to cut costs, The Inquirer reported.

The minister outlined plans for shifting the UK government departments to the .odf Open Document Format (ODF) and away from Microsoft's proprietary Microsoft Word .doc and .docx formats, to allow users to switch to open source office suites.

Speaking at a cross-parliament showcase today, he told mystified  ministers, "The software we use in government is still supplied by just a few large companies. A tiny oligopoly dominates the marketplace.

"I want to see a greater range of software used, so civil servants have access to the information they need and can get their work done without having to buy a particular brand of software," he added.

Maude told journalists that open source software would increase the possibilities for collaboration between departments more effectively with cloud services, even as it saved a significiant amount of taxpayers money through lower licensing and support costs.

Since 2010, the UK government had spent £200 million on Microsoft Office alone.

However, according to commentators this was not for the first time that the UK government had sought to part ways with the corporation.

Cost cutting attempts to break the ''oligopoly'' of IT suppliers dated back 12 years, with policy announcements from both 2002 and 2009 that never  really took off.

Maude is looking at giving out more public-sector contracts to UK companies, at the same time saving public money.

Maude also hailed the creation of CloudStore, an online marketplace for councils, for which up to £10 million a month was being spent on the site, with over half going to small amd medium enterprises.

According to some commentators, though migrations away from dominant software had often proved difficult for the government.

In 2010 the government said it was ''not straightforward'' to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8 and in 2012 admitted that, despite internal IT policies, open-source software still was not widely use.