Monday, January 10, 2005
The Brazilian government news agency Radiobrás (ABr) website has completed a move to free software. As of January 9th, the agency’s website is in compliance with the Brazilian government’s program to use free software throughout the public sector.
Free software is software which, once obtained, can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. It is often made available online without charge or offline for the cost of distribution; free software is not limited to being given away, but can be “free as in free speech” and sold for profit. Some of the most well-known examples of free software are the Linux operating system, the Mozilla web browser and the OpenOffice office suite.
About 25 people worked on this change. The change has taken about a year and a half, since the first changes of some workstations and servers of Radiobrás.
The switch to free software is being implemented by the National Institute of Technology of Information (ITI), inspired by similar decisions made in another countries. A reduction in service costs is expected.