By Kitty Donaldson and Robert Hutton
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. government staff suggested replacing Microsoft Corp. operating systems on computers with free alternatives in response to a call for ideas for Prime Minister David Cameron's cost-cutting drive.
Cameron asked the 600,000 government workers last month to make suggestions on saving money as his administration seeks to cut Britain's record budget deficit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today published a sample of the 56,000 submitted ideas, which including abandoning Microsoft, switching office lights off and centralizing stationery procurement.
"In terms of spending less, what about migrating the whole of government (the NHS, education etc.) from Microsoft products to Linux and open-source software like Openoffice," read one of the suggestions displayed on the Treasury website. Two of the 31 listed proposals, whose authors were not named, suggested dropping Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.
Open-source software such as Linux and Openoffice offers free or very cheap alternatives to Microsoft's Windows and Office, the world's most popular operating system and productivity software. Osborne said before the Conservatives won power in the May 6 election that he favored the idea.
"We need to follow the example of businesses all over the world and take advantage of open-source technology," Osborne wrote in The Times of London in February 2009.
Osborne said today he is now asking the public to send in ideas about how the government should save money to narrow the 155-billion-pound ($235 billion) budget shortfall.
--Editors: Eddie Buckle, James Hertling.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.
