IDABC - EU: EC considers study on migration to Open Source
(2008)Abstract
EU: EC considers study on migration to Open Source
Open Source News - 25 June 2008 - EU and Europe-wide - General
The European Commission is considering doing research on whether it should migrate to Open Source software, the EC's director of corporate IT solutions and services, Christos Ellinides, told Reuters in an interview.
"For the moment we are working in a Microsoft environment," Ellinides told Reuters. According to him, studies showed the costs of moving to Open Source outweighed the benefits, but he added that it may be time for a new study. "There is a decision that we will explore the possibility of initiating this study on an institutional basis."
Reuters interviewed Ellinides following a speech earlier this month by Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition. Kroes recommends that governments use software based on Open Standards. In her speech, she referred to a policy requiring all future IT projects to be based on software using open, well-documented standard. "Interoperability is a critical issue for the Commission, and usage of well-established open standards is a key factor to achieve and endorse it", she quoted the policy, which was adopted last year. She said it should be implemented with vigour.
According to Ellinides, the Commission is able to handle documents stored in Open Standard formats. However, Reuters also cites a lawyer specialising in Open Source and Open Standards, disagreeing with Ellinides.
"The Commission should be more thorough in following their own policies. I have clients who have complained that the Commission mandates using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets in some funding projects," said Carlo Piana, based in Milan.
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