The migration, which will be carried out in stages, is scheduled to start soon with a pilot phase in the social services department. The migration to open source software should comprise all of the city´s IT systems, and should lead to a situation where all software used by civil servants will be in Catalan language. The migration is expected to affect not only the city´s Government but also the wider public sector and even public-private bodies.
The City Council, which currently runs Window NT on its desktop computers, decided to switch to open source software instead of upgrading to Microsoft´s Windows XP operating system. But the migration to open source will concern all software applications, and exceptions to the new rule will only occur if there is no viable open source alternative to a specific type of software application.
The City Council´s decision aims to cut software costs for the public sector, foster the development of the local open source software industry and promote the use of Catalan.
In this respect, its "Ciutat del Coneixement" ("Knowledge City") Department is currently promoting the first Catalan open source operating system, CATix, of which 60,000 copies have already been distributed.
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 25.08.2004
