Ministers are looking at saving tens of millions of pounds a year by abandoning expensive software produced by firms such as Microsoft.
Some £200m has been spent by the public sector on the computer giant's
Office suite alone since 2010. The Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude
believes a significant proportion of that outlay could be cut by
switching to free 'open-source' software, such as OpenOffice, or Google
Docs. '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. In the first
instance, this will help departments to do something as simple as share
documents with each other more easily. But it will also make it easier
for the public to use and share government information.
