Party agencies will abandon Microsoft Office

More than 20,000 computers in Party agencies nationwide will switch to open source office software OpenOffice instead of the current Microsoft Office software.

Mr. Vu Duy Loi, Director of the Informatics Center, Central Party Office said that the transition to OpenOffice software application will start in 2008. It is expected that in 2008, more than 20,000 computers in the above Party agency The whole country will switch to using this open source office software.

The transition to OpenOffice will be made into a specific task in the Project of computerizing the activities of Party agencies in the 2006-2010 period.

Cost savings are only part of the decision to convert. ' The main goal of converting from Microsoft Office software to OpenOffice is to improve the capacity of the Vietnamese IT community. Because the use of open source products like OpenOffice and next may be open source operating system products along with other applications will create new markets for Vietnamese IT businesses, 'Loi said.

To prepare for this transition, Mr. Loi said the Party Central Office and Party agencies in the localities have invited open source software businesses to advise on solutions to convert Microsoft Office to OpenOffice. .The most worrisome difficulty for conversion according to Loi is to change user habits so that the transition does not affect their daily work.