In a move mirrored by Governments in South American and Europe, the UK Govt recently announced policy to move towards adoption of Open Source Software solutions.
Interesting highlight from the policy document, “UK Government will explore further the possibilities of using OSS as the default exploitation route for Government funded R&D software”
- UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis.
- UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments.
- UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services.
- UK Government will consider obtaining full rights to bespoke software code or customisations of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software it procures wherever this achieves best value for money.
