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Australian Tax Office Adopts Open Source Software

Posted by timothy on from the updated-fleecing-techniques dept.

James Roberts writes "AustralianIT is reporting today that the Australian Tax Office, or ATO (Australian IRS equivalent) has ditched its standard Microsoft SOE and will now adopt the Linux operating system 'where appropriate.' It was reported late last year that the ATO was originally considering Longhorn as its preferred SOE. This is a big step for Australian Federal Government, who have been slow in the uptake of open source policies despite ongoing petitioning by several high profile pressure groups."

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. And with all the money they save... by Timbotronic · · Score: 0, Troll
    ...from going open source, they're going to give us all a huge tax cut!

    Actually I think Steve Irwin will be voted "Father of the Year" first.

    --

    One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there

  2. News Taken Out of Context by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Lets take a look at how the OpenSource community has taken a media source which may or may not be reliable and taken it out of context. Let me quote a few key phases:

    "concluded that the agency should evaluate and use open-source software where appropriate."

    "key findings were that the ATO should develop an open-source policy"

    At not point does it say that the ATO has decided to act upon this recommendation and at no point does it say that it will replace all the Microsoft products with Linux! The Australian Government has policies as to what products are certified for use within government departments and at the moment their aint too many, if any, open source products that are on that list.