Register debate series Register readers are backing a shift away from Microsoft software as a default across the UK public sector after the government confirmed it expects to spend £9 billion with the software giant over five years.

Official estimates suggest £1.9 billion will be spent every year under the existing agreement with Microsoft. In a poll of more than 1,500 readers, 93 percent advocated some kind of move away from Microsoft.

Last year, the government negotiated a Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 (SPA24) memorandum of understanding (MoU) that took effect in November and is scheduled to last until 2029.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which arranged the MoU, said it would offer "enhanced value across Microsoft's portfolio of products and services." Public bodies using the agreement might include schools, hospitals, councils, and emergency services, for example.

Critics, however, have argued that a government facing fiscal challenges on all sides and a mountain of debt could look for free and open source software alternatives, which have become largely commoditized.

Invited to debate these points, former deputy UK government CIO Bill McCluggage wrote that small-scale pilots, trials of open source software, or hybrid vendor strategies could create competition and generate savings while maintaining service continuity.

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In the opposing corner, Jos Creese, who has held IT leadership roles in UK central and local government, pointed out that the public sector hasn't had a great history of avoiding the big tech brands. "It is not that open source is not viable, but rather that the true costs often only come to light over time," he said.

"Rather than a panacea," Creese added, "open source can create unforeseen risks of lock-in and incompatibilities across increasingly integrated systems. As the links between different public service organisations become more crucial, incompatibility creates all manner of problems."

Responding to The Register's poll, 38 percent of readers said FOSS was an alternative to Microsoft in the public sector, agreeing that much of the productivity software, storage, and systems which are so ubiquitous in government are freely available as open source elsewhere, and can be supported at a much lower total cost.

Only 2 percent said the government should stick with Microsoft because those migrating to open source always come back in the end. Twenty-seven percent said open source developments at Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund and the EU demonstrate the backing for FOSS projects, and the UK should start now or end up with fewer options later.

Only 4 percent said the UK public sector should stick with Microsoft and overhaul its tech buyers to get taxpayers the deals they deserve.

Some 29 percent said the UK should keep a mix of both Microsoft and FOSS software to keep the megacorp honest. ®