UK government policy on open standards software is being to pay off.
According to Angela Smith, minister of state in the UK cabinet office, the Open Standards and Re-Use action plan was published in February 2009 as government policy to ensure value for money for taxpayers.
And the Office of Government Commerce (OCG) is developing guidance for the procurement of open source software, working with departments and local authorities that have already implemented open source apps to share methods, including procurement.
The OGC, she said, has identified that progress implementing open source software is already taking effect.
Over 25 percent of secondary schools use the Linux OS on at least one computer. And 35 percent of National Health Service (NHS) organizations – with over 300,000 users, are uspported on a Linux infrastructure. The NHS spine uses an open source OS.
Further, she said, all staff and public PCs in Birmingham City Council’s library services now have a mix of open source and proprietary software.
