We are getting to hear that many organization and government agencies are going for open source software and ditching Microsoft completely. The switch from Microsft to open source is being done by these agencies mainly due to high operating cost and security reasons. Last month, we published here post regarding the Indian state of Kerala which has chosen open source Linux based operating system in their schools for teaching purposes to save about 430 million dollars.
Now the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have started a project named as Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt) a year ago. This project was started to save money from licensing premium software and slowly migrate to open source alternatives. This step was taken after seeing the increasing licensing cost of Microsoft OS and its applications. Earlier, CERN was provided with a discount by Microsft on the licensing cost for an academic year of the institute which got expired in the month of March.
CERN has also published a post on its official blog explaining everything regarding the Malt project. CERN has mentioned how they are going to adopt open source alternatives and ditch Microsoft keeping everything in control. You will find more details regarding its Microsoft Alternatives project which has been started one year ago to find perfect replacements.
According to the published post, the main objective of the Malt project is to find the perfect open source alternatives of the Windows and other commercial software products which can save CERN from the bad financial situation. CERN is going to start by implementing a major change in pilot email service for the IT department. And if this change comes out to be successful then it will be implemented on a larger scale. CERN will also look forward to finding alternatives to popular software like Skype etc.
CERN is making this switch mainly due to the bad financial situation. But Chinese and Russian military have planned to switch from Microsoft Windows to Linux based OS.
