An introduction to Open Source software licensing and use in anaesthesia department

Conclusions

EU member states are supporting the Open Source initiative suggesting the adoption of free software in government installation instead of commercial software. The latest national laws suggest adoption of Open Source solutions in educational structures as well, such as in schools and universities. It is clear that imprisoning knowledge with license fees does not allow any improvement nor any growth.

The project proposed in this article aims to show how simple the installation of an intranet based on Open Source OS could be. The use of Open Source does not require financial investments in either hardware or software, but only investments in the training of people to improve their computer skills. Hardware and software get obsolete very quickly. That does not happen with investments in training: Open Source is the key to improve the quality of our technical staff and of our computer environment.