The UK government is seriously considering the use of open source software in a major Whitehall IT project for the first time.

Central buying arm the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) plans to develop a single platform to share purchasing information between government departments.

Potential suppliers will be invited to submit plans for the system early this summer, and the OGC confirmed that using open source software is a possibility.

"Is this the time for the government to embrace open source as a platform, because it is interoperable? This debate needs to be stimulated in terms of which way we are going to go," an OGC spokesman told vnunet.com's sister title Computing.

"We are looking at all the options, based on value for money and the ability to deliver a system fit for use across Whitehall. Nothing is being ruled out at this stage."

A win for open source would boost its credentials as a serious alternative to traditional commercial platforms such as Unix and Windows, but the fact that it is even being considered is significant.

A public consultation by the Cabinet Office last summer concluded that the government should "seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services".

If the OGC's purchasing platform uses open source software, it would be the first central government project to put the recommendation into practice.

Ashim Pal, vice president at analyst Meta Group, acknowledged that it is a milestone that open source is being evaluated, but warned that there is still a long way to go.

"This would be a big win but, at this stage, there is only speculation," he said.

Government departments currently have no way of sharing information about their purchasing.

It would not be practical to develop a single system to handle all Whitehall buying, but an interoperable platform linking the various independent systems would allow data to be shared.

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