EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Technology, Telecomunications

"The prime minister has signed a resolution ... to evaluate what possibility exists to use open source software," as Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis' (New Era) press secretary 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 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, reports LETA.

"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.