According to IT companies, the transition of State institutions to the “Open Source” programmes does not necessarily means less expenditure.

Wilfried Grommen, regional technology officer for Central and Eastern Europe of the world’s leading manufacturer of software “Microsoft”, gives a wary assessment to the incitement to transit to “Open Source” software.

“It’s a myth that software is free of charge, even if it is that of the “Open Source”, W. Grommen, who is visiting Vilnius, told journalists on Thursday. He emphasised that expenditure on information technologies includes not only a license fee for the programmes – but value created by the software and other expenditure must be also considered: for IT maintenance, comparability, integration with other software. 

One of the leading Lithuanian IT companies “Blue Bridge” emphasises that transition to the “Open Source” programmes may lead to even larger expenditure. “With the current economic situation in Lithuania, the suggestion to transit to other software may cost more than to continue working with available tools. It’s a question of whether transition to the “Open Source” systems by authorities would lead to any decrease in expenditure. I would dare to doubt it”, Arunas Zalnierius, the Head of Infrastructure Management Solutions Department, said in the company report.

He also emphasised that additional expenditure (on training, maintenance and data transition) is rarely taken into account. According to him, each year the State has been investing in IT infrastructure which is based on the decisions of IT manufacturers; systems would not work on the basis of the “open source” and their application would require additional investment.