Cash-strapped Latvia mulls switching from Microsoft

Cash-strapped Latvia is mulling whether to replace brand name office software like Microsoft with an open source equivalent as a cost-cutting measure, a government spokeswoman told AFP Thursday.

"The prime minister has signed a resolution ... to evaluate what possibility exists to use open source software," Liga Krapane said in a phone interview.

"It's done with just one goal -- to save some money," she said.

The resolution recently signed by Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis is aimed at finding "an opportunity" -- financial and legal -- to switch the state "completely or in part" to using operating systems or software that "are not produced by the US Microsoft Corporation."

The proposal, which singles out Microsoft, angered the Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association, a group representing information technology firms in Latvia.

"The state should not start fighting Microsoft Corporation or any other company, but rather use information and computer technology to raise the effectiveness of the government's apparatus," the association said in an open letter to the Dombrovskis' government.

Latvia, a small EU Baltic nation of 2.3 million people, has been hard hit by the global recession. With its economy expected to contract by 18 percent this year, tax revenues have plummeted.

Under terms of a 7.5-billion-euro (11.2-billion-dollar) international bailout, Latvia is obliged to slash 500 million lats (711 euros, 1.06 billion dollars) or 10 percent of spending each year for the next three years to meet the EU criteria on joining the euro.