Petition Migrate to Free, Open-Source Software

The Government should initiate a change from expensive proprietary software to open-source, and often free, alternatives.

With the spending cuts in process, spending large amounts on software is unjustifiable. At the same time, Government services’ being run on a less than optimally secure system is cause for concern. If it was a choice between one or the other, security would be paramount, but there is strong evidence for much open-source software being more secure.

As a result, the Government could save money and improve security with minimal impact on usability by slowly migrating to a new system.

Additionally, numerous countries and institutions have started to, or finished, changing from proprietary software: The White House, Brazil, large portions of the US armed forces, Spain, and more.

Less expensive, more secure, requires no hardware changes, equal usability, and with proof it can work for government bodies. All in all, a no-loss situation.