The Alliance 90 / The Greens in the parliament of the German state of Saxony are urging for a feasibility study on moving the state's public administrations to free and open source software solutions. The political group, free software users themselves since December 2011, say that lower IT costs and advantages in IT security should drive public administrations to using free and open source software.
In a press release, the group protests that the State of Saxony continues to rely on the ubiquitous proprietary software solutions, spending some 12.5 million annually on licence fees. "This dependency gives large corporations access to and influence on official internal workflows, as well as sensitive communication and data of the state's citizens."
The Parliament of the State of Saxony should take a lead role, the Alliance 90/Greens write, and set the example to other public administrations in the state. The parliament uses free and open source solutions for browsing the web, creating CDs/DVDs and for multimedia. "Office productivity tools should be next", the political faction writes, which would simplify cooperation with other factions.
The press release was published a few days prior the state's elections, and the Alliance90/Greens are currently involved in talks about a new government coalition. "It depends on were we will be next, either in the government or in the opposition, but we will keep pushing for a switch to free software", a spokesperson commented. "So far our calls have not gotten far, as the IT systems in the state are completely locked-in by the usual proprietary software vendors."
More information:
Alliance90/Greens press release (in German)
Linux Magazine news item (in German)